A/N: Credit still goes to acb for the rune idea, and to SorrowReminsce and DaxisSteele for their help. Major credit goes to DaxisSteele for her great idea about Max's reply. Major credit also goes to SK for telling me her thoughts about the runes. Thanks again! I know absolutely nothing about the runes, everything in here is either made up or the idea/knowledge of somebody else. I took a lot of the rune translations from Daniel Parker's series Countdown. Okay, this is really hard. I am trying very hard to stay in character, so if I get a little OOC, please tell me!
"I translate the runes…and you tell me if my son is still alive."
There's not enough light in the room to see his eyes, but Max knows that even if she could see them, they wouldn't tell her anything. White is so good at hiding behind the double mask of Familiar-cum-federal agent that his eyes are almost completely inexpressive.
Max hesitates. To have the runes translated…
'If White knew that Ray was alive,' she thinks furiously, 'he would never stop looking for him.'
Keeping Ray out of White's hands has been one of Max's long term personal goals for a while now.
But the runes…
She raises her eyebrows at him, "Just the runes," she says, questioning, "Not the significance?"
White gives her a very small smile. "Just if he's alive. Not where he is."
Max hedges. "What if he's dead?"
White's humorless smile doesn't waver an iota, but his face hardens. "Deal still stands."
If she tells White that Ray is alive he will never stop looking for him. If she tells White that Ray is dead…
It will crush him.
Max doesn't know where that thought came from. Since when does she care about White's mental health? If she tells him Ray is dead, he will stop looking, and he will be crushed.
Shouldn't that be a good thing?
Max knows that she has gone soft. She might hate White, but she knows that he loves his son, and she can't do that to him. She should refuse.
But the runes…
"Alright," she tells him softly. "Deal."
There's a brief argument, and when it's over they've agreed that White's side of the deal comes first.
White stands up, still over in the other corner of the room. He hasn't put his jacket back on and the sight of him standing in the shadows in his dark shirt and shoulder holster makes things low in Max's stomach clench.
She tells herself it's fear. But it isn't.
She drops her own jacket on top of the bucket she's been sitting on, her heart fluttering from some feeling somewhere between fear and desire.
White doesn't move. Hands in his pockets, he stands perfectly still, watching as Max walks toward him, pulling her long-sleeved shirt over her head. Underneath she's wearing a short, spaghetti strap tank top that Original Cindy talked her into buying once, long ago. She leaves it on, figuring White can read around it; the thought of being half-naked around him is just too much to handle.
She stops in front of him, and his eyes drop to the runes that cover her chest and arms.
"Alright," he says, after a moment. "You want the gist of it or the pseudo-biblical bullshit literal translation?"
Max glares at him. "Literal."
White puts his hands lightly on her shoulders, turning her slightly into the light that spills through the cracks around the door.
"Death will court her- tempting her with its dark sleep. While the demon assumes human form, walking among the righteous and the wicked," White reads off the inside of Max's left arm. He looks at her, questioning.
"I'll remember." Max says, "Go on."
He sighs, and continues, lifting her arm to read the rest of the runes that continue across her chest. "Freed from false hopes, with a need to wreck vengeance upon her enemies. And the earth shall again bask in a fleeting glow."
White turns her again, moving onto her right arm. His hands are strong and callused, the feel of them gliding along her skin makes Max shiver, and she hopes he'll mistake it for a reaction to the runes.
"The demon bides its time in a hidden place, and rules from an invisible throne. The demon will command its servants to lead the seers into temptation. To break their will, to cloud their vision. And the servants of the demon will destroy the seers."
Demon. There was never any mention of a demon in anything Logan could dig up about the Familiars. But the thought of Logan makes Max feel incredibly guilty, she doesn't know why. It's not like she arranged to be stuck in a closet with Ames White's hands on her.
But telling herself that doesn't make her feel any less guilty. So she stops thinking of Logan, and tries to focus on what White is telling her; she has to remember all this, no matter how little sense it makes.
White has turned her around completely. Max hears him swallow hard before he very slowly, very gingerly, moves one of the tank-top straps aside.
"The meek will inherit the earth, for the consequences of all lives are sacred…bullshit." He pauses. "That last bit was me, in case you couldn't tell."
"Yeah," Max retorts, "I figured as much."
There's a long, uncomfortable silence as White hesitates again. "I need to…umm…"
She's never heard him talk like this before. "Go ahead," she says, very softly.
He very gently slides his hands up from the base of her spine, lifting the back of her shirt out of his way as he goes. Max can feel his breath on the back of her neck, the hesitation in his touch. Her breath goes shallow as he edges the top up far enough to see the last of the runes.
His breathing is none too steady either. "When the shroud of Death covers the earth," he says, his voice both deeper and softer than usual, making Max's spine shiver, "the one who's power is hidden will deliver the helpless…that would be you, I suppose."
Max has to try three times before she can speak. "You again?" Her voice is husky and low. She wants to kick herself.
She wants him to keep touching her.
Fortunately for both of them, he doesn't. He pulls her shirt back down, covering up the runes again. He pauses, his fingers lingering at the small of her back, and then takes a step backward, away from her.
Max turns to face him.
"Me again," he agrees.
They stand there for another eternal moment, staring at each other. Somehow, someway, their relationship has changed. Max swallows hard, and steps around him to get her shirt.
"45...," he stops. "Max?"
The sound of her name on his lips gives her a strange, secret thrill. She turns, pulling her shirt back over her head.
"My son?" His face is tense. Whether from worry over Ray or worry over her integrity, Max doesn't know.
"Right." Max studies him for a moment. Yes or no. Yes or no.
Truth or lie.
"The last time I saw him," she hears herself say, "he was alive, but weak, still fighting the effects."
This isn't true. The last time she saw Ray he was bouncing off the walls, waiting for Logan to take him to his aunt, so they could get the hell away from Seattle. But she can't tell White that. If only to reassure herself that she hasn't fallen for him completely.
White's expression is a mixture of relief and despair. "If the effects hadn't left by then…" she hears him murmur to himself.
He shakes his head briskly, and looks straight at her. "How do I know you're telling the truth about Ray?"
Max gives the look right back, fighting the vague sense of guilt creeping up on her. "How do I know you didn't make all that demon crap up?"
White's expression edges back toward despair. "Good point," he concedes, softly. "At least there's still a chance…"
And standing in a darkened storage closet, surrounded by enemies, watching another enemy slide towards the dark pit of desperation, Max feels like the greater of two evils.
Any two evils.
A/N: Don't count on me doing anything with the runes unless overwhelming pressure forces me to turn this into a novel. They were never intended to be part of the plot; I just wanted to give White an excuse to get his hands on Max. Once again, the runes mean nothing, they were either taken from SK who got them God-knows-where, or taken from Daniel Parker's Countdown series, or made up off the top of my twisted little head.