What Was There All Along

Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.

Max had still said nothing to his pronouncement, and Alec almost thought that she had gone into shock or something, but finally she spoke again.

"How do you know?" she asked shakily, looking so lost that all he longed to do was wrap her up into his arms and protect her.

"I can smell the change in your hormone levels." he admitted quietly, at this Max took a deep shuddering breath and dropped her head into her hands, clearly trying valiantly not to break down. At this Alec started to move towards her, but Max was having none of it, and within seconds she had jumped to her feet, clearly desperate to leave.

"I've gotta blaze." Max muttered, trying to turn to leave, but finding herself unable to move, as Alec had grabbed her arm.

"I'll come with you." he stated calmly, desperately needing to keep Max and their unborn child in his sights, everyone of his instincts screaming at him to protect her.

"I don't need a body guard Alec." snapped Max, having apparently realised his intentions, she looked really ticked off by his attitude, she clearly had no idea what this was doing to him, and he didn't think that she would be particularly keen to listen to his explanation about transgenic instincts. She probably wouldn't believe him anyway, so sighing in frustration, and trying to curb the urge to follow her he let her leave, before sinking to the bench Max had just vacated and dropping his head into his hands in frustration, what the hell was he supposed to do now?

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After their encounter at Jam Pony Max did everything in her power to avoid Alec, she had absolutely no idea what to say to him, and frankly the whole situation was freaking her out, all she wanted to do was pretend that this wasn't happening, but unfortunately it was, and within a few days she could already feel the morning sickness start to kick in, so she certainly couldn't deny that she was pregnant.

OC picked up that something was wrong right away, and when Max told her that Alec had said she was pregnant OC marched her straight off to the doctors to find out for sure, gently bullying her friend into doing the right thing as she usually did, which was how she found herself waiting outside Dr Carr's office, in the waiting room, for the results of the pregnancy test, OC holding her hand. For once Max was actually nervous enough to actually allow her friend's comforting touch. She had explained to Dr Carr about the heat, and Alec (whilst begging him not to mention anything to Logan), and he had agreed to the test, though warning her that it might be too early to know for sure, he had agreed with Max's assessment that store bought tests might not be conclusive with her unique genes.

Soon the wait was over however when Dr Carr ushered them back into his office, and confirmed what Max already knew, she was indeed pregnant, though not very far along, she tuned out the rest of his speech, not bothering to listen to her options, already knowing that she couldn't kill a child. She had already lost enough of her family, killing Ben had been bad enough, she already had enough blood on her hands without adding her child's blood to them as well. There was no choice, she was keeping this baby and that was all there was to it, that didn't mean that she wasn't terrified, quite the opposite in fact, but that didn't change her mind, so telling the doctor as much she stalked out of the room, and took off on her motor cycle to mull things over on the space needle. It didn't help much, she still had no idea what to do, about Alec or Logan…

Alec was confusing her, she knew that he knew that she was avoiding him, and he seemed to accept this, though he clearly wasn't happy about it, but she knew that he was watching her whether at work or in Crash, he was always there, she could feel him, just out of sight, watching her back, and most strangely it wasn't pissing her off, instead she found it strangely comforting to know that he was there and he was watching her back. She hadn't felt so secure since she was back at Manticore, when she knew that no matter what happened Zack and Erica would protect her, make sure that nothing bad happened to anyone, and she found that his presence soothed her, whilst at the same time electrified her, one glance from him turning her to jelly, she put that reaction down to crazy pregnancy hormones.

She also eventually plucked up the courage to visit Logan, it was about as awkward as the rest of her recent visits, and of course he wanted to know about her trip with Alec, to which all Max had to say was that the job had gone sideways, to which Logan had replied that that was 'typical' of Alec's job's. She had completely avoided the topic of her heat, what was she supposed to say anyway? She knew that she would have to say something eventually, what with the baby and all, but right now denial was so much easier than facing Logan's inevitable hurt, he would never be able to forgive her for this, and she wasn't sure that she could deal with that. He also fortunately had not heard of her and Alec from any other sources either, so there was probably no need to worry on that front if he hadn't heard anything about it by now.

OC was clearly pissed that she had chickened out from telling Logan, but there was absolutely nothing she could do to force Max to tell him, they both knew that it was bound to come out sooner or later, and Max was determined that it would be later, much later.

She was confused about what to do, and Alec wasn't helping matters by being so understanding, nice and generally un-Alec like, she had no idea what was going on between them, but it was confusing her, and she didn't like it! She should have been thinking about Logan, the guy she was in love with, not Alec, but she couldn't stop thinking about him, her brain was completely out of her control, and she couldn't stop it, it was like he was a part of her now… or something, she really had no idea what was going on with them at all.

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Meanwhile Alec had been trying to respect Max's apparent wish for him to leave her alone, but he had taken to following her with his eyes at Jam Pony and Crash, he could tell that she knew that he was watching, protecting her and the baby, but she hadn't told him to get lost yet, which was progress, right? She also actually seemed to be enjoying the feeling of being protected which he was glad for, but he missed her terribly since she wasn't even talking to him anymore, a fact which had not gone unnoticed by the Jam Pony grapevine, which was now full of even more rumours about them.

He couldn't stand the distance between them, she had been in his bed for lees than 3 days, but now he couldn't sleep in it without her, haunted by memories of her he feared would never be repeated, she was tormenting him. He couldn't stop thinking about her, she was on his mind 24/7, it had been bad enough before, but now it was intolerable, he was drowning in her and he couldn't even bring himself to care, it was pathetic really, especially considering that she was in love with Logan, and didn't give a damn about him, even now when she was carrying his child.

Max hadn't even bothered to tell Logan about the baby, so she was still clearly in denial about the whole situation, he didn't think that she would get rid of the baby, but he had no idea what was going on in her head at the moment. He just wished that she would talk to him, before this they were almost friends, but now… well she didn't blame him for what had happened but she clearly wasn't ready to face up to it or him. Just great!

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Sooner or later Max knew she would have to talk to Alec again, but if she had chosen a venue for the reunion it would most certainly not have been Logan's apartment, but unfortunately, fate must have a really twisted sense of humour.

Logan had paged her half an hour ago, and told her to meet him at his apartment to help him with an 'Eyes Only' mission, so here she was. She had pulled her usual trick of picking his lock, and let herself into the apartment without a hitch, but she paused for a minute to watch him work, before she announced her presence, as per usual he jumped at the sudden noise, and she couldn't help but feel a thrill of disappointment that she had snuck up on him, she would never get away with that with Alec…

"You wanted me to do something?" she prompted, when he took a minute to look at her, before seeming to remember the mission.

"Yeah," he confessed, slightly embarrassed to have been caught staring at her, "I just haven't seen you around much lately, I missed you." he admitted, and Max nodded though she was dismayed to find that she did not feel the same way, she would much rather have continued to avoid him. "Right," he continued professionally, "I need you to do a little cat burglary for me, over in Sector 2, the house of one Robert Williams, I need you to get into his vault and remove some plans of his for a bank heist he and his associates are planning, if you can get them, 'Eyes Only' can do a video bulletin and get these guys arrested."

During this little speech Max had become aware of a presence behind her, ALEC, it was very distracting, and she had to work really hard to continue listening to Logan's little rant when she knew that he was right behind her, she hadn't been this close to him in days, 'Too long,' the treacherous voice in her mind that was really beginning to piss her off supplied.

"So we get in steal the plans and get out, not seeing why we need two people here Logan." snarked Alec, causing Logan to jump yet again as he hadn't realised that Alec was there yet.

"Well, Alec," began Logan condescendingly as though he were talking to a 5 year old rather than a genetically engineered super soldier who had trained his whole life for missions like this, it was quite irritating really, (at which point Max mentally slapped herself for thinking anything like that about Logan, and for defending Alec! )"There are guard dogs and a state of the art alarm system," Logan continued on oblivious to Max's train of thought, "assuming something goes wrong the place could be swarming with guards in less than 3 minutes, so its best if there are two of you, in case things get out of hand.", at this Alec nodded curtly, showing his understanding, still lounging comfortably in Logan's doorway.

Max knew that Alec's eyes were on her, so she deliberately didn't turn around, she didn't think that she could trust herself to look him in the eye and keep enough of her wits about her not to give things away to Logan.

"OK when do you need us?" Max asked trying to keep her head in the game, even with Alec's distracting presence hovering in the doorway.

"Tonight if you can." answered Logan promptly, assuming, as usual, that Max and Alec had nothing better to do than missions for him.

"Fine." Max answered looking to Alec for confirmation, though still not meeting his eyes, he inclined his head to show his agreement.

"Sure I got nothing better to do tonight." he admitted in typical smart Alec-ky style, flopping onto Logan's expensive leather sofa with apparent nonchalance, ready to go over the plan in detail.

Max inwardly groaned, with Alec on the sofa, and Logan on a chair by the computer, she could either stand, looking uncomfortable, probably making Logan suspicious, or go and sit next to Alec for an agonizing couple of hours, "Decisions, decisions!" Max thought sarcastically, unsure which move would be worse, if she sat next to Alec she might accidentally touch him, and the only times that had happened in the last few days it had caused major sparks, which Logan was sure to notice, but if she didn't Logan might well wonder why, and she really did not need him to start wondering about her and Alec.

Admitting defeat Max plopped herself down on the sofa, next to the artfully sprawled Alec, who was taking up most of the room. They sat in silence for a minute waiting for Logan to fill them in on the plan, like he usually did, Max desperately trying to avoid accidentally touching Alec, or initiating eye contact with him, but apparently this just made Logan suspicious, after all, Max and Alec always fought, loudly and usually physically, silence between the two was unusual to say the least.

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"OK is there something going on that I should know about?" Logan finally questioned, clearly unnerved by their silence.

"Like what buddy?" questioned Alec, doing a very good imitation of someone who hadn't a clue what was going on, he really was a good actor,(even Max had to admit that).

"You two haven't said more than two words to each other since you got here, what's going on?" questioned Logan suspiciously, eyes flickering between the seemingly relaxed Alec and the seemingly on edge Max. He had no idea what was going on between the two, but he wasn't an idiot, and he could feel the weird vibes coming off them. Max looked to be about an inch away from bolting, and there was actually something vaguely threatening in Alec's eyes, making Logan feel slightly on edge, which was faintly ridiculous, after all this was Alec, since when had ever been the least bit threatening, apart from the whole pointing a gun at him thing… never mind, the point was there was no way Alec would be threatening him now, so he must have been seeing things.

"Nope nothing wrong with us." stated Max, clearly not as calm as she was trying to pretend she was, there was really something wrong here, but he needed to get this job done, so Logan wasn't about to dwell on it.

"Right," he stated, clearly not convinced by Max's answer, but willing to let it slide for now, "about the plan…"

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During the next couple of hours Logan outlined the plan, and the two X5s altered it to make it more workable, but finally it was over. There was a tense moment, when Max and Alec's hands accidentally touched when looking for entry points to the estate, but the moment when their eyes locked in shock was fortunately lost on Logan, who was at the time explaining how they could contact him through the use of microphones and earphones.

The plan was simple Logan would hack into the system from the outside, putting the cameras into a loop so the guards wouldn't see them, whilst the two X5s snuck in to grab the plans, hopefully it would be fairly simple, the bad guys relying on a state of the art security system rather than a complicated vault to keep the plans safe, so there shouldn't be a problem on that front. They would then exit through an upstairs window, before jumping over the fence and making their escape in Logan's waiting car, it should be simple enough for them to accomplish, the only problem would be if they tripped a silent alarm and security was called, but even then Max and Alec should probably be able to eliminate any resistance between the two of them.

Told ya I wouldn't leave you in suspense for long! Anyway thank you soooo much for all the really encouraging reviews, I'm really pleased that so many people are enjoying the story so far, and I hope you continue to review and give me your opinions on things so I know what I'm doing right or wrong! Anyway, thanks!

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