What Was There All Along

Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.

It was inevitable that on the way to the job Alec would try to make conversation, it was probably physically impossible for him to be silent for more than 5 minutes at a time, how he had ever survived Manticore… It therefore came as no surprise to Max that once they had left the car and gone radio silent, he took the opportunity to talk to her whilst she was effectively a captive audience.

"I see you haven't told him yet then." he began seriously, for once his famous smirk not present on his face.

"Told him what?" questioned Max, clearly wanting to delay the inevitable talk, as she continued to scan the area for security as they crept, silently along the deserted corridor.

"I wonder." snapped Alec sarcastically, knowing that he would only succeed in making Max defensive with such a comment, but for the moment not really caring, he was that irritated with her denial attitude.

"You make it sound like it's easy Alec." bit back Max angrily.

"It is easy Max, just tell him, he'll find out eventually anyway, but he'll take it better if he finds out from you, before he gets told by everyone else." stated Alec, trying to reason with her, knowing that she couldn't deny the truth of what he was saying, as he continued to creep through the darkened corridors towards the vault.

"I know," Max sighed tiredly, "but I just need some time, ya know? I can't deal with him hating me right now…" she drifted off clearly upset at the prospect of Logan being angry with her, hurting Alec more than she could have realised just by showing how much she cared for Logan, and how much she would never carer for him, despite what they now shared.

"Max you know that Logan could never hate you, he loves you..." admitted Alec, determinedly not looking at her, scanning the corridor ahead, so that he didn't have to see the expression on her face towards his announcement, "besides its not your fault, you can blame it on the heat, on me… its my fault…"

At this Max surprised Alec, reaching forward to grab his arm before he could turn the corner, forcing him to look at her, "I don't blame you," she told him seriously, staring at him with her intense chocolate brown eyes, refusing to let him look away, at that moment all Alec wanted to do was kiss her, and he was almost certain that she wouldn't pull away. He could practically see the sparks flying between them as he began to lean forward, certain that within a second he would be kissing Max... But the moment was shattered by Logan coming off radio silence…

"Guys are you at the vault yet?" questioned Logan, his voice crackling to life in their earphones.

"No not yet," answered Alec, dropping his head in defeat, as Max broke eye contact and moved away from him in fright, "give us a second." Turning to Max he smirked, "Shall we?" he asked, gesturing flamboyantly with his hands.

At this Max shook her head in exasperation, missing Alec's pained look and aborted punch at the wall as she crept past him down the corridor. "Damn Logan and his bad timing!" cursed Alec silently, as he considered punching the wall to take out his frustration, he nearly kissed Max, when she was willing and not heat addled and Logan had to go and screw it up, it was official, his life sucked!

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After the near kiss with Alec, it didn't take long to reach the vault for which Max was exceedingly grateful, she didn't think that she could stand spending much more time with him alone. It was confusing, she loved Logan, but then why were sparks always flying between her and Alec? It didn't make any sense, and it was really starting to get to her, these pregnancy hormones must have been doing a number on her head to get her this strung out!

The vault itself was no problem, a simple combination vault which either of them could of cracked in their sleep, but typically after that things started to go down hill, as somehow they had managed to trip the silent alarm. Within minutes the corridors were flooded with guards, 12 of them at least, perhaps not a huge problem, but enough to be a cause for concern.

But throwing caution to the wind, as she usually did Max attacked them with vigour, separating them from their guns and knocking them out, secure in the knowledge, that Alec had her back, she was so busy fighting them off that she didn't see the kick to her stomach coming until it was too late for her to have any hope of stopping it, but Alec did…

He reacted so fast that even Max didn't see him move, and the guard certainly had no chance of stopping him, he was down before he even saw what hit him, his foot grabbed when it was an inch from Max's stomach, before he was unceremoniously grabbed by the neck and flung 10 feet into the opposite wall. Max had never, ever seen Alec that angry, and frankly the ease with which he dispatched the rest of the guards, and the cool efficiency of his actions was disturbing to watch, even considering everything else she had seen. He was like a man possessed, and made sure that none of the other guards got within 6 feet of her after that. She should have said something to him, but she was too shocked about what had almost happened to care, she had come literally within an inch of loosing her baby, and the very thought terrified her, on the up side she now knew that even though this baby was unplanned she did love it, and couldn't bear the thought of loosing it, but at the moment she was too afraid to even think straight.

When he finally stopped he looked to her to see if she was alright, his eyes taking in every inch of her body to check for injuries, burning with possessiveness at the thought of something that belonged to him being damaged, but the intensity, the sheer primal power radiating from hazel green eyes was frightening, she knew now that here was a man who could easily kill her, but who would go to any lengths to protect her and their child, even kill, and she didn't know quite how she felt about that, should she be terrified, or, secure in the knowledge that he would protect her?

Suddenly, it seemed that his eyes shifted back to normal, and it was just Alec again, not the stranger of moments before as he knelt next to her, pulling her shaking body into his arms, and whispering endearments and soothing words in an effort to calm her as she sobbed all over his shoulder, getting the fear out of her system.

Max knew consciously that she should push him away, pick herself up and carry on, but for once she let her emotions over ride her duty, for a while at least, and for a few moments she lost herself in the feel of his arms, before finally pulling back, picking herself up, wiping away her tears, and walking out of the building. Max's only concession to her previous fear being an inability to let go of Alec's hand while she walked, she didn't think she would make it back to the car without his comforting presence within reach, and the last thing she needed to do was break down again.

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Back in Logan's car Alec handed over the plans wordlessly, refusing to look in the eye the man who had endangered his mate and their child with his stupid mission, he knew that if he did he would loose it and end up attacking him, which he knew Max would never forgive him for doing, but the scent of Max's fear was still fresh in his nose, and it was driving him crazy. She was still panicked, but she wouldn't let him hold her, or try to calm her in Logan's car, so for now he could do absolutely nothing, except endure his mate's stifled sobs.

Logan for his part was completely oblivious, having got what he wanted, namely the plans, and was not paying Max or Alec the slightest bit of attention, which was fortunate considering that both were too shell shocked to be able to formulate coherent sentences to talk to him.

Alec himself was probably as upset as Max. The thought of loosing the baby was unbearable, and the thought of Max in pain was worse, it had taken every bit of self control he had not to kill those guards, but he wasn't back at Manticore anymore, and he had refused to ever kill that way again, he only hoped that he could keep that vow…

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Logan dropped Max and Alec on a corner, close to Max's apartment, and with a mumbled 'thanks' she exited the car with Alec close on her heels. For once Alec was uncharacteristically silent as he walked with Max towards her apartment.

Max knew that she should have told Alec to go away, to go back to his apartment and not follow her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was still practically shaking with shock, and Alec's presence was strangely soothing, she couldn't bear the thought of him leaving, not now, besides which, it being Friday night, OC would certainly be at Crash, and Max wasn't sure that she could face an empty apartment the way she was feeling.

Max was still in shock about what Alec had done though, who knew that he could fight so well? She had always beaten him in the past, but now she couldn't help but wonder, had he let her win? Truth was Max knew that she probably shouldn't have won any of their fights, Alec had ten years of training on her, at least 60 extra pounds in weight, and he had certainly shown that he was physically stronger than her, so had he just been playing with her before? But not only was Max questioning their fights, but Alec's skill in general, she was so used to thinking of him as screw up, but she could hardly call his earlier calculated action the actions of a screw up, it had looked like he knew exactly what he was doing.

The way Alec fought was also puzzling, Max had fought other X5 before, whether it was her siblings, or those she trained with when she was recaptured by Manticore, but she had to admit, the way Alec had fought earlier was impressive, even for an X5. He had managed to move faster than she had even thought was possible, and the power radiating from his eyes…well, what the hell was that about? It was like he had reacted on pure instinct, and Max had never seen anything like it before, it was almost frightening to watch.

Almost before she realised it Max found herself at the front door of her apartment, she had been so lost in thought that she couldn't even remember going up the stairs, but here they were at the door, and Alec was turning to leave… Trying to stem her rising panic at the thought of him leaving, Max reacted on instinct, grabbing his arm, and forcing him to turn back, but now what? She had no idea what to say to him, without coming off either needy or weird, and she really did not need Alec laughing at her. But, steeling her resolve, she began to speak anyway, "You could stay for a while you know, if you want, we've got some new coffee in…" stated Max, catching his eye, and trying to express in a look what she would never say in words, 'please don't leave yet, I don't want to be alone'. Fortunately Alec seemed to understand her message, and Max wanted to sigh in relief when he walked into the apartment with her, leaning nonchalantly on the counter whilst she got out the coffee pot, and began to boil some water on the stove.

Curiosity getting the best of her Max couldn't help but question him about what had been on her mind earlier, while she moved around the small kitchen collecting cups and milk for the coffee. "So," she began, trying to sound relaxed, "what was that earlier? I mean I know you're an X5, revved up and all that, but I've never seen you fight that well before, so what's the deal, what happened?" she questioned, trying not too sound to curious about his reply, as she poured the now boiled water into the coffee pot.

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At Max's seemingly innocent questions Alec tried not to freeze, this was not what he wanted to deal with tonight, not on top of everything else that had happened, but he knew enough about Max to know that she would not be put off from her questioning, so he might as well bite the bullet and get it over with now.

"He would have hurt you Max." answered Alec simply, "And I wasn't gonna let that happen." he explained, knowing that Max wanted more of explanation from him than this, but not wanting to have to tell her everything.

"OK," began Max hesitantly, "I get why you went terminator on them, but if you could fight like that how come you never told me?" she accused, "We've done loads of jobs together, so how come you never mentioned it before, and how come you let me win all those times? I mean you could have knocked me on my ass anytime you wanted, but you didn't…Were you playing with me?" she asked, a hurt and somewhat angry expression clearly visible on her face.

At this Alec blanched, so she knew that he'd let her win, somehow he didn't think that she was going to take that particularly well, what exactly was he supposed to say to her? Somehow 'I fell in love with you from pretty much the first moment I saw ya and I just couldn't bring myself to ever go all out on you' would probably not go down well, hell she'd probably laugh in his face, so what exactly was he supposed to say?

Chickening out, and deciding to answer the easier question first Alec began to explain, "I've got 10 years of training on you Max, is it that surprising that I can actually fight well?" he questioned, trying to throw her off balance, but apparently not succeeding.

"That was more than 'well' Alec, you pulverized those guys, and it didn't even look like you were trying that hard. I've seen X5s fight before," she continued, "I was back at Manticore for a while ya know, and I have never seen anyone else fight like that before." she stated, her voice showing how absolutely certain she was about what she had seen, and how much she expected Alec's next answer to be absolutely honest, well wasn't that just peachy!

"Well I wasn't a CO back at Manticore for nothing Max." snapped Alec defensively, really not wanting to have to go into his sordid little Manticore past right now.

"You were a CO back at Manticore?" questioned Max, clearly incredulous about Alec's little announcement, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You never asked Max, and there's no need to sound so surprised about it," replied Alec, more than a little hurt that Max seemed to find the idea so laughable, "I wasn't always a screw up ya know." he defended angrily.

"I didn't say that you were." Max explained clearly trying to appease him, not that Alec believed her for a second, he knew what Max thought of him, and to her he would always be a screw up, so what was the point in hanging around so she could abuse him to his face? Enough was enough, and if she had so little respect for him, why bother to hang around? So although his instincts were screaming at him to stay with her, for once he ignored them, surrendering himself to his turbulent emotions. Without so much as a backwards glance at Max he stormed out of the apartment, refusing to stop even when she grabbed his arm in an effort to stop him from going, but he didn't listen, even he had some standards, and he wasn't about to stay comforting a woman who, not only didn't respect him, but who was in love with another man.

Poor Alec, Max really put her foot in it that time! Anyway, thanks for all the reviews so far, please continue to review and tell me what you like, and don't like, it helps if I know what you guys think! Anyway thanks for reading!

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