What Was There All Along

Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.

Still can't believe I'm posting this, but here it goes…

In less than ten minutes from leaving Alec's Max was back home. Fortunately OC wasn't up yet, so Max hoped that maybe she could shower and grab some clothes before OC even woke up, thus avoiding talking about what had happened during the past few days. Max had absolutely no idea what she was gonna say to her friend. What could she say? Sure OC already knew all about heat, but she had never gone through it before, so she could never truly understand what it was like, and how exactly was Max supposed to explain something that she herself didn't understand?

With these depressing thoughts Max made her way to the shower, and enjoyed the feel of the cold water on the skin, hoping to wash away memories of the lips which only a few hours ago had been all over the skin that the water was now caressing, but it was useless, she just couldn't get 'it' out of her mind, she had to hand it to the boy he really knew what he was doing in that department, heat had never been like that ever before. She also looked in a mirror to examine the damage, it was blatantly obvious what she had spent the past few days doing, she was literally a walking bruise, covered in scratches bruises and love bites, Alec could hardly be ay better off, and putting the two of them together in a room, she might as well have put a neon sign over head telling people exactly what they had done together, today was gonna suck. Riding her bike all day was gonna hurt like a bitch, everyone would be talking about her, and there was a particularly violent purple love-bite on her neck which she had no hope in hell of being able to cover up. Oh happy day!

Finally realising that trying to wash away the memories was futile Max crept out of the shower, hoping to still manage to avoid her roommate, no such luck. It appeared that OC had woken up and started making coffee while Max was distracted by memories of Alec in the shower.

"Morning boo," chirped OC far too happily, "I see ya finally back then." OC smirked knowingly, making Max blush furiously, at the idea that her friend knew exactly what she had spent the last few days doing.

"Yeah I'm back." admitted Max shyly, staring at her feet.

"So you gonna tell OC what happened boo?" she questioned kindly.

"Don't know what there is to say," confessed Max, "I mean you saw what happened at Crash and I'm sure you can guess the rest…" she trailed off, uncertain of what to say.

"Yeah I guess I can," admitted OC, "but damn boo 3 days, say what you want about your boy but he sure got stamina!" she finished, grinning wickedly, causing Max to laugh.

"That he does!" admitted Max, still laughing and feeling slightly better about this fiasco if her best friend could laugh about it so easily, accepting the cup of coffee that OC was offering gratefully.

"So ya not mad at him for taking advantage then?" questioned OC curiously.

"It wasn't his fault." defended Max, prompting a disbelieving artfully raised eyebrow from OC.

"Wanna run that one past me again suga," questioned OC, genuinely puzzled by Max's defence of Alec, why wasn't her friend wanting to kill him? "You were in heat and he…"

"Got caught by the pheromones I was giving off, its not like he had any more choice than I did OC." Max explained, surprisingly calmly.

"Damn boo that is some fucked up shit, those folks at Manticore got a lot to answer for." fumed OC, feeling genuinely sorry for her transgenic friends, and vaguely murderous towards the lab geeks that created them.

"Damn straight!" concurred Max angrily, "but now there is no way I can blame Alec for this fucking mess.", she sighed looking suddenly very young and lost, causing OC to swiftly embrace her, in an effort to comfort her friend, "And oh God, what about Logan!" panicked Max, seemingly only now remembering the guy she was supposedly in love with, "Has he been looking for me? What did you say to him?" Max fired the questions at OC quickly, freaking out, and trying to gauge quickly how much Logan knew about what had happened.

"Relax boo, breathe," ordered OC, hoping to get Max out of panic mode, and only continuing when she saw Max make a visible effort to do what she had ordered her to, "Logan called looking for you a few times, but OC told him that you was out of town doing a job with Alec, figured I should try and explain why you were both gone."

"Did he believe you?" questioned Max, trying to force the panic our of her voice by sheer force of will.

"I think so." admitted OC thoughtfully, "Did he try paging you or phoning Alec?" she questioned.

"Yeah, I think so." admitted Max, vaguely remembering beeps and ringing at various points during her 3 days locked in a room with Alec, it was foggy but she was sure that she remembered hearing it, though at the time she hadn't much cared, and she had yet to actually check her pager, having more important things weighing on her mind.

"Will anyone else have told him anything?" questioned Max, frightened by the prospect, there had certainly been enough witnesses for the story to have got back to him…

"You mean like Asha?" OC questioned, to which Max inclined her head in agreement, "Don't worry boo, she was out of town the past few days, no way she could have heard anything, let alone told Logan about it," comforted OC, "but ya know ya gonna have to tell him yourself boo.", at this Max dropped her head onto OC's shoulder, realising her friend was right, and trying not to cry at the prospect of that conversation, couldn't she just pretend this was all a bad dream?

"We'll figure this out boo, everything'll be alright boo, you'll see." comforted OC, holding her distraught friend.

"I'm not sure it will OC," confessed Max, brokenly, "we didn't use any,.. you know.." she stuttered shyly.

"Ya worried you could be pregnant." finished OC quietly, feeling even more sorry for her clearly frightened friend.

"Its pretty much a certainty OC." sobbed Max, failing to stem the tears now, leaving OC to comfort her completely shell shocked friend, what was Max gonna do now?

They stayed that way for a few minutes, 'til, Max had stopped sobbing, but then, realising that she needed to get going if she wasn't gonna loose her job, Max pulled herself together, and hurried off to get changed for work, leaving a very concerned OC in her wake.

XXX

At work things were even worse than Max expected, the whole room going silent the minute she entered the building, 45 minutes late as usual, Normal was seemingly the only one who refused to believe the rumours about her and his 'golden boy' and was the only one treating her normally.

"And what time do you call this Missy-miss!" he shouted angrily, "You're all of, oh, 45 minutes late," he stated angrily, gesturing to his watch for emphasis, "and you haven't been in since Monday! I hope you've brought a nice doctor's note to explain this or I might just have to fire your ungrateful slacking ass!" he sniped, just as Max had predicted he would, it was official, her day could not get any worse! Wrong again!

XXX

"Hey Normal why don't you lay off." growled Alec, it wasn't a request, it was an order, and something in Normal recognised it as such, he was now looking disturbingly antsy, and though determined to hold his ground something in him seemed to recognise Alec as a dangerous predator, and it was right.

Alec had just walked in the door to be greeted by the scene of Normal laying into Max, as per usual, however what was not usual was his reaction to it, it was making him angrier by the second, no one talked to his mate like that! But that wasn't all, something was different about her, her scent it was slightly different, different hormones… Then it hit him, Max was pregnant, and if Normal didn't back down in the next 30 seconds Alec was about an inch away from snapping his neck like a twig for threatening them.

OC seemingly scenting danger stepped in at this point, and invented some wild story about someone back 'home' dying, and Max being so grief stricken that she got drunk at Crash that night, before leaving with Alec to go to the funeral, it sounded ridiculous but people, including Normal appeared to be buying it, so he was more than grateful to OC for bailing them out, and stopping him from killing the boss, so he sent her a thankful smile, to which she nodded as she turned to pull a stunned Max off to work.

It was then that Alec really noticed how many people were staring at him, he felt like he was on display in a zoo or something, like being back at Manticore, and it was making him really uncomfortable. Apparently most people had been at Crash during his and Max's heated encounter, and were apparently still intensely curious about it. "Just perfect!" he thought furiously, walking to his locker and trying to ignore the stares, this day could not get much worse, he was still waiting for Max to kill him when she figured out that not only had she mated with him but was also pregnant by him, she was going to be furious.

At this point Sketchy chose to make an appearance, overjoyed that his buddy was back at work, enthusiastically clapping him on the shoulder, accidentally jarring the scratch marks that Max had left and causing Alec to visibly flinch, though Sketchy completely missed it, he was soon demanding all the gory details of how Max and Alec hooked up and complaining that Alec had never mentioned it to him before.

Alec had no idea what to say to Sketchy, 'hey I'm a genetically engineered super soldier escaped from a secret government conspiracy, so is Max and ya see well our feline DNA made Max go into heat and I was helpless to resist her pheromones', aside from sounding insane did not exactly have the right ring to it. He shook his head in exasperation trying to convince Sketchy that he had the wrong end of the stick and that there was nothing between him and Max, but Sketchy was having none of it, especially since, he pointed out it was blatantly obvious what they had been doing, seeing as they had matching purple bite marks on their necks, at this Alec tried not to flinch, he had forgotten about that, a leftover from the mating ritual, not that Max realised, so much for denying things, but hey, even Max couldn't say that he hadn't tried!

XXX

Max had felt the moment Alec had entered Jam Pony, she hadn't seen his entrance, but she had felt it, somehow she had just known, like a hyper awareness of where he was, she could still feel him, over by the lockers with Sketchy, even while she was over at the dispatch desk collecting packages with OC. It was weird, but it was strangely nice knowing that he was right there that he had her back, just like always…

She hadn't realised she was even spacing out 'til OC's concerned voice brought her back to reality, she brushed off her friends concern with a shrug and a muttered 'I'm fine' before moving off to find her bike, her mind already off trying to decide how she should approach Logan before she was rudely interrupted by Alec.

Again she felt his approach before she actually saw him, but shrugged it off as her over active imagination, that is until he cleared his throat, and she was forced to look up to find the source of the disturbance, accidentally looking straight into his intense greeny-hazel eyes, something which she avoided doing all morning, knowing that if she looked she'd be floored, he did, though she hated to admit it, have truly gorgeous eyes.

Taking advantage of her momentary inability to speak, Alec grabbed her hand, and ignoring the pointed looks of their co workers, pulled her over behind the lockers.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" snapped Max, regaining her ability to speak, and wrenching her hand from his strong grip, having to also strongly curb the urge to hit him.

"Talking to you without an audience!" snapped Alec, equally harshly, obviously irritated with her attitude, they were both so caught up in their argument that neither saw Sketchy's curious head peer round the corner before retracting very quickly, with an expression like a kicked puppy, upon hearing the clearly irate raised voices. "Or had you forgotten we still had to talk!" continued Alec furiously.

"Well do we have to do it right now, here!" bit back Max, desperately, gesturing towards the lockers that they were currently sequestered behind really not wanting to have this conversation with Alec so soon.

"Might as well," shot back Alec, not missing a beat, probably realising that if he left this up to Max they would never talk things out, "besides," he continued more seriously, "this is kind of important, and we didn't mention it this morning," he paused, almost nervously, although considering that this was Alec Max dismissed that idea as frankly ridiculous, "Max you're pregnant." he stated calmly, whilst Max visibly blanched, sinking to the bench in front of the lockers, and dropping her head into her hands, her worst fear had just been concerned, what exactly was she supposed to do now?

Hah! Suspense, I'll try to post the next chapter soon so you don't suffer, but a warning for the future, when I said I had this story from a while back, I meant that I have like 8 chapters of it written, after that its in the same position as my other stories, in that I really don't have the time to devote to it at the moment, but fear not, I'll finish it eventually!

Anyway you know the drill, review and tell me what you think, good, bad, indifferent, it wouldn't kill ya to drop me a line and tell me!

Cheers!

XXX