Chapter2
The music at Crash was loud. Too loud. Or maybe Max just had a headache. It had been a long day of deliveries, followed by a long evening of planning and organizing in Terminal City. She definitely deserved a couple of beers.
As if on cue, a pitcher of beer was placed in front of her, followed by a handful of beer mugs.
"Thanks, Alec."
"No problem. Looks like you could use it."
"Wow, with flattery like that, no wonder the ladies are all over you." She kidded as she helped herself to a mugful of the icy brew in front of her.
He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, "I was just saying that you've worked hard today and you look like you could stand to relieve a little tension. Now, I'd be willing to offer to help you relieve some of that tension in some of the more creative ways…" He was interrupted by a swift slap to the back of his head.
"Alec!"
"What? I meant sparring, or a trip to the top of the needle, or maybe a little B&E. What did you think I meant?" He gave her a half smirk as he said it and then turned to pour himself some beer.
"Whatever." She let it drop.
"Max! Alec! Come back here!" called Biggs from the corner of the back room. The two grabbed up their beers and followed the voice of Alec's best friend.
"Hey guys," he said as they got close enough "Noone interesting to shoot pool with tonight. We're going to throw darts. Wanna play?" Biggs looked up at Alec as Alec handed him a beer.
Alec glanced at Max who was busy looking around the crowd. she's either looking for OC or Logan and my money's not on the lesbian He turned to Biggs, "Yeah, me and Maxie against you and Sketchy. Come on Max." he grabbed the sleeve of her jacket and tugged her in the direction of the dartboard.
"How come I have to have Sketchy while you get Max?" Biggs made a face as he watched Sketchy stumbling back from the men's room.
Alec was watching Max still scanning the crowd. ":Fine. Fine. You can have Max. I'll take Sketchy. Let's just play." He put some quarters in the machine and started up the game. "You're first Maxie." He put three blue-tipped darts in her hand and directed her to the throw line.
Pulled out of her thoughts, Max looked up at the dart board. "Um. I've never played before. What numbers do I aim for?"
Biggs came up from behind her and proceeded to explain the rules and scoring to her. Alec took special notice of how close Biggs was standing to Max and the way that she seemed to be hanging on his every word.
When Biggs put his hand on the small of her back, he couldn't stop himself from interrupting. "Hey! We gonna play or what? It's not brain surgery—although Biggs, you could probably benefit from some—you just point at the round thing in the middle of the machine and throw."
Biggs turned back to Max and whispered conspiratorily, "At least he didn't bust out with that 'I learned to play the piano in one day' crap again." He smiled at her.
She winked at him and replied, "Or worse, he could've said 'Bip,Bip,Bip!'." The two dark-haired transgenics burst into an uncharacteristic fit of giggles. When they regained their composure Max stood up to the throw line and hit her mark three times in a row.
"Not bad for someone who's never played before," Biggs teased as he held up his hand to give her a high-five.
Alec, taking note of the way-too-comfortable interaction between Max and Biggs, stepped up to the line backwards. "Yeah, but can she do this?" as he threw backwards, without looking and hit the same three spots Max had just hit on her turn.
The game proceeded for over half an hour as the three transgenics took turns showing off and having fun. It would've gone on longer but the beer ran out.
Alec picked up the empty pitcher and started to head for the bar, but Max stopped him. "No, I'll go. You got the last one." And she headed up to the bar.
Both Alec and Biggs watched her go with deliberately disinterested looks on their faces.
At the same moment both Biggs and Alec noticed the false expression on the other man's face and realization dawned on the both of them. "You're interested in Max!!??" they said at almost the exact same time. They both gave the same slow shake of their head. They both took a deep calming breath at almost the same time. It would seem weird if an outsider was watching, but these men grew up at Manticore. Every expression and every reaction was learned. Nothing was just natural, they were conditioned to act appropriately and when they were caught off guard, to the point that now it was just instinctual.
Alec spoke first, "Don't even think about it."
"I've already thought about it, man." Biggs answered taking on a defensive stance.
"Well, rethink it. She's off limits to you."
"Hey pal, this isn't Manticore. I have choices. She has choices. And you can't stop me. Besides, if either one of us has a shot, it's me. You're her side-kick. The perpetual thorn in her ass. She probably thinks of you as her brother. You are already out of the game, my friend." Biggs gave Alec a sympathetic look.
"Don't flatter yourself Biggs. First of all, Max is still pining for super-cripple. Second, I am NOT her brother. And Third, you stand NO chance against me. I'm telling you to back off." Alec gave him his most intimidating commanding officer look as he ground out that last bit.
"Don't pull rank on me Alec. That commander shit is not going to win you any points with Max. But since you're so cocky about the whole thing, why don't we make it interesting? Would you be up for a little bet?" Biggs challenged.
"No way. Max would kill the both of us if she ever found out." For once Alec didn't make the stupid choice.
"Fine. A little healthy competition never hurt anybody. No rules?"
"No rules."Alec and Biggs shook hands and looked up to see where Max was.
At that exact moment Alec noticed Logan at a table near the bar with a gorgeous brunette who was not Max. "Oh Shit." He mumbled and Biggs followed his gaze to Logan and his mystery woman. "Oh shit is right." Biggs agreed.
The two men headed toward the bar where Max was standing waiting for the pitcher. She had obviously not noticed the spectacle Logan and the brunette were making in the corner—yet.
As they got nearer an idea occurred to Alec, and a smile spread across his face…
Logan and Sarah were sitting on the same side of their table and leaning close to each other. He was trying to look comfortable. He was trying not to search the crowd for Max. He was succeeding, but it was killing him. He could feel her in the room, but if he was going to pull this off, he couldn't show it.
Sarah leaned in and nuzzled his neck. "How am I doing, Logan?" she asked quietly. He leaned into her so that it would look like he was nibbling on her ear and responded, "Just fine. You're doing just fine. Give me another twenty minutes and then we can go." He pulled away from her and resumed gazing into her eyes and intently chatting with her.
It was killing him though. Sarah was beautiful, but she just wasn't Max. Max. He remembered his earlier resolution and tried to focus. He wanted Max to be happy, and even if Max was with Alec, Logan knew she wouldn't really let go and be truly happy if she thought Logan was suffering all alone and pining for her. So he enlisted the help of Sarah Roth, a fellow reporter back from his newspaper days, to play the part of his new girlfriend for a couple of weeks. He thought if he could convince Max he was in love with someone else, then she wouldn't feel bad about her new relationship with Alec. He figured all it would take were a couple of public appearances and then Max would get the hint that it was okay to let go. If only it worked both ways. Logan knew that he would never get over Max, but it was time to let her go. She was "the one" for him. Unfortunately, that had now turned into "the one that got away."
While at the bar, Max looked around. She had been looking for Logan earlier, but then she got wrapped up in her game with Biggs and Alec. It surprised her that she hadn't thought about him for the past half an hour. She casually turned around and tried to inconspicuously scan the bar. She had already swept the place twice before she spotted him. She would have missed him, but he was wearing the shirt she had given him for his birthday. Otherwise she wouldn't have believed that it was Logan canoodling in the corner with that bimbo like they were the last two people on the face of the earth. She felt her temper start to boil but that quickly changed and suddenly she found herself out of breath like she had been punched in the gut. She knew she had been the one to end things, but seeing him move on so quickly really was a painful shock. Needing to escape, she spun around to make her exit and found herself crashing into a wall of hard muscled chest.
Alec gently caught her against him and held her still. To an outsider it would like a casual embrace between a loving couple, but actually it was taking an enormous amount of effort on Alec's part to achieve that casual look. Max was trying to struggle and it was taking all of his strength to hold her still.
"Max, calm down." He mumbled softly, his breath warm on her cheek.
"But.."she began but he cut her off.
"I saw him too, Max, but if you go tearing out of here he's going to notice. And if he notices, he's going see that you're upset. And if he thinks you're upset," While he talked he began to play with the ends of her hair where it grazed his fingers. "he's going to wonder why. And if he wonders why it just might occur to him that you have not, in fact, moved on with someone else."
While Alec was talking and soothing her with his ministrations, Max stopped fighting him and really listened. As much as she hated to admit it, Alec was right. It was her idea to end things, and it was the right decision to make. She wanted Logan to be happy. But then why did she feel so shitty?
She looked up into Alec's eyes and saw the look of true concern he was giving her.
"You're right. I'm fine. You can let go."
"Do you wanna get out of here?" he asked her as he loosened his grip but didn't release her.
"Yeah." She looked down for a moment to compose herself. When she looked up, she had a calm expression on her face. She caught Alec's eye and he winked at her. For some reason she was feeling a strange disconcerting ache in her belly.
"Ok. Follow my lead." Alec kissed her high on her cheekbone right below her left eye and laced the fingers of his left hand with the fingers on her right hand. He shot a smug look at Biggs and headed towards the door pulling Max along closely by his side.
Conveniently, the path they took to the door took them past Logan's table. Not too close, he didn't want it to seem obvious, but close enough to get noticed.
"Your place or mine tonight Maxie?" He asked her loud enough to be heard, but quietly enough that it didn't sound like he was trying to get Logan's attention with the comment. He wanted the other man to hear him, but he didn't want Logan to think that he wanted him to hear.
"I don't care where we go hotboy, but you'd better get me there fast." As she and Alec had neared Logan's table, Max had regained that Manticore-bred-tough-girl persona that had been her primary defense mechanism for the past 10years. Neither Max or Alec glanced in Logan's direction.
Attagirl Maxie Alec thought as Max got her head back in the game. "You don't have to tell me twice." He said as he rushed her out the door.
Behind them, Logan sighed the sigh of a broken man, and Biggs smirked at Alec's quick thinking…