This chapter was beta'd by Scarlet it is her I have to thank for all the lovely punctuation and grammar.
Chapter Fourteen
Alec walked wearily into Crash. Being Normal's golden boy didn't come without its drawbacks, the principal one being that he had developed the habit of doing twice the amount of work as everybody else in the same amount of time. Today had been pretty hard going and it wasn't made easier by the fact that the earlier uproar must have opened the stitches in his shoulder. It had been hurting like hell all afternoon.
She's not here yet, he realized, his eyes scanning the crowd. The place was already pumping. Going to be a good night, he reflected indifferently, wishing he was already home in bed, preferably with Max. Oh yeah. He didn't have a home or a bed and unfortunately Max would be all tucked up alone in hers tonight.
Tiredly, he scanned the crowd for Biggs and the others. He needed to catch up with Steve and find out what had happened this afternoon. Biggs had said Steve was sorting it out, he knew how that would have gone. Logan would have been told in no uncertain terms that Max was Alec's mate now and off limits. He knew how angry she would be, he would be blamed for the interference. Another screw up, he thought, his earlier optimism that she was receptive to taking him as her mate gone. Still, he couldn't complain. At least Steve would have left Logan alive, he thought ruefully. Spotting Biggs, he made his way over to him.
"Hey, Biggs, mind if I crash at your place again for a couple of nights until I've sorted something out?"
"Nah, you can stay as long as you like." He looked speculatively at Alec. "Look, man, it's none of my business but will Max be staying too?"
"No, this morning she told me she couldn't wait to get home," he grimaced ruefully at Biggs.
"So you're not mated, then the ordinary is still a problem," Biggs frowned disbelievingly. "If I hadn't heard all the noise you two have created over the last two nights, I'd say you were seriously losing your touch."
"Yeah, well, she needs time to sort some things out," Alec replied defensively, "And yeah, it's not your business," he added warningly.
"It's just if she doesn't sort herself out soon it could be a bit of a problem for all of us."
"What?" Alec spluttered, bewildered. He knew it was a problem for him, but what the hell did it have to do with anyone else?
"This afternoon when the ordinary left, Steve went after him to have a bit of a word," he raised his eyebrow eloquently. "But a couple of the guys got there first..."
"Shit, he's not dead, is he?" Alec interrupted with dread.
"Nah, not dead, but he's a bit the worst for wear. He was okay to drive away once Steve helped him to his car, so it couldn't have been too bad," he added hopefully.
"Who?" he demanded curtly.
"Tavis, with Todd on watch."
"Tavis, fuck. Lucky for Logan Steve was close behind."
Biggs nodded in agreement.
"Tavis is all messed up over an X5 who won't give him the time of day, but who he thinks is interested in some ordinary. Todd just doesn't like our women with ordinaries, same as the rest of us, really. They thought they were helping you."
Flexing his sore shoulder, Alec's mind raced, he chose his words carefully. "The problem being then that Max's ability to influence things will be compromised if she doesn't mate with another Transgenic. Is that what you're saying?"
"If Max chooses the ordinary over you, a lot of Transgencis will hold that against her. Logan, isn't well liked and most resent him even coming to TC and consider him a security risk, but that's not the problem."
Biggs looked at him speculatively. "Alec, you know the only real power Max has to influence anything comes from her association with you. Most of us like her and we respect the fact that she let us out of Manticore, but she doesn't know us and she doesn't have the training or experience to keep us alive out here. You are the highest-ranking officer here. We know you, we've fought with you, we trust you. You know us and you know what we need. You can keep us alive."
Alec's mind raced with all the implications. Biggs was right X5s like Tavis need the systems, routine, stability and discipline that Manticore offered when if wasn't there they had nothing to ground them. Hell, they all needed it. They had been raised to be part of a group, their instincts predestined them to seek solace within the pack they needed the structure and security of that. He remembered after Manticore had burned how lost and alone he had felt until Max had taken him into her life. Finding that line between Manticore and the human world, creating an environment that provided structure, discipline and support without the evil of Manticore was going to be the challenge.
Biggs was right. If this wasn't dealt with it would become a wider discipline problem, they might be a fledgling settlement at the moment, but their numbers were growing. They couldn't go against orders and act independently like this or there would be chaos.
Max couldn't do what needed to be done here. Even if she recognized the need, Tavis and Todd would not accept her authority. If he did this, though, he would be, in effect, assuming command. He didn't want it. What he would really like to do was just take Max and get the hell out of Seattle. Not much likelihood of that, though. Even less now, once she finds out about Logan, he thought, resigned.
Who was he kidding, anyway? A year ago maybe he would have been able to leave, but not now. Most of his original Unit were in TC. All his friends. Tavis and Todd were both members of his Unit and his friends, he had a responsibility to them.
But if he did this, it wouldn't just be his own unit, he wouldn't just be helping out on the fringes he would be accepting the responsibility for all of them. He had known that inevitably someone would have to do that, as did Biggs and the whole of TC. Everybody except Max, he thought uncomfortably.
"Where are they now?"
"We've made a temporary holding cell, they're waiting for you. You look like shit, Alec, let them stew until the morning. You need to get that shoulder looked at."
Sensing Max, he turned and saw her and OC making their way to the bar. Watching her chatting with OC as she waited to buy her drink, he realized there was no real choice. For whatever reasons, he couldn't leave here. To make it safe for the baby, for her, for all of them, things had to be run right. Whether Max liked it or not, they were soldiers. Structure and discipline was all they knew. Just because Manticore had gone didn't eliminate that need and someone had to provide it. At the moment, he was the logical choice.
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He looks terrible, white faced, tired and drawn. Her eye lighted on his drink, orange juice. His shoulder must be bothering him again, she suddenly realized. Not surprising after that ridiculous incident earlier.
Remembering she was meeting Logan in an hour, she puzzled about what to do. She didn't want Alec at her place when she had her talk with Logan, but he needed his shoulder fixed and he didn't look like he was in any state to be sitting around here waiting for Logan to leave.
"Have you got your bike here, Max?"
"Yeah," she answered absently, still preoccupied.
"Okay, then you can get yourself home. Biggs and I've gotta go now, we've got something we have to do."
Does he have no common sense whatsoever? she thought impatiently. "It'll have to wait until morning. You look like crap and I want to look at your shoulder." It's obvious he's nearly dead on his feet. She'd just have to worry about Logan later, she decided, sighing inwardly.
"It's okay, Max, my shoulder's fine." Her concern caught him by surprise he smiled at her, thinking how easily he could get used to it.
It wasn't fine, it hurt like fuck, and he was feeling light headed and nauseous. But he needed to sort Tavis and Todd out tonight, he wasn't leaving them to stew, this wasn't Manticore. But he didn't want to leave Max this early either at least it would have been good to have been able to sit here with her a bit longer. Wearily, he got out of his chair.
"I'll see you tomorrow at work."
"What?" Suddenly panicked she realized that if she didn't act he would be gone in a minute.
"But I thought you were stay..." OC trailed off as Max glared at her.
She racked her brain for a reason to keep him there. "Where are you going?"
"To TC," he answered patiently, as they turned to go.
"I'll come with you, I can look at your shoulder there." Grabbing her jacket, she jumped up to follow them
"No, Max, Biggs will do it later. I've got something I have to do now on my own."
Something to do on his own, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I'm still coming," she repeated all the more determined.
Frustrated, he wracked his brain for an argument to dissuade her.
"Good idea, Max," Biggs agreed, coming to the rescue "You can sort the med kit out while we talk to the guys."
What guys? she wondered suspiciously, following them out of Crash.
Smirking OC watched her leave 'he's not my boy' she mimicked to herself.
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She had never seen him so coldly adamant. Before, she'd always been able to make him do what she wanted. Furious, she watched him walk away. Just what the hell were they up to that was so secret? Trouble, if she knew Alec. Well, she wasn't going to wait here until everything was all messed up.
There're a lot of people out tonight, she noticed absently. She joined a group of Freaks headed in the same direction Alec had taken.
Alec walking with Biggs, his mind still on Max's furious face, started to notice the freaks and X 's who seemed to be coming out of everywhere.
"What the fuck."
"Words got out, they know you have to act on this and they're here, like me, hoping we'll get a Commanding Officer tonight," Biggs shrugged, his eyes serious as they met Alec's.
All right, he thought, reconciled. If I'm going to do this, might as well do it right. "Bring them out here, we might as well let everyone see what's going on."
Max, caught up in the flow, now realized that something was up. All of TC was out tonight. She didn't recognise any of the freaks or X's around her, but that wasn't surprising there were just too many new arrivals. They all seemed to know each other, though, no doubt old acquaintances from Manticore. Forlornly, she stood on the outskirts of the crowd.
Preoccupied with wondering what Alec could be up to, she hadn't been paying much attention to what was happening around her. Hearing his designation, she started to tune into what was being said.
It didn't take her long to discover that two X5's had beaten up an ordinary and they were about to be disciplined for it.
She heard 494 mentioned several times. Alec and Biggs, she thought furiously. I might have fucking well known. No wonder his shoulder is giving him trouble. But who the hell was to discipline them? she wondered, totally at a loss. Worried, she started to push her way towards the front.
No wonder the jerk didn't want me to come, she seethed. She could see him now. He was standing in the middle of the circle the crowd had formed. She couldn't see Biggs yet, but no doubt he was there somewhere. Her eyes narrowed, watching Alec survey the crowd, apparently without a care in the world.
Debating as to whether she should just barge right up and demand an explanation, an unfamiliar feeling of caution halted her.
She wasn't unaware that his support had been significant in enabling her to take the leadership roll she had in TC. If he himself was in danger, she wasn't in a very strong position. Better to wait and see what happened, see how it played out. Impatiently she scanned the crowd where the hell were their friends, the other members of their unit anyone who would help her if they needed help.
She could heard the mutterings about the Manticore punishment for disobeying orders, for acting on your own and apprehensively listened to people speculate as to whether that was going to happen here. Would they be shot? She could feel the agitation and speculation in the crowd.
Shocked and growing more fearful, she wondered who the hell had the power to bring everybody here for this? Who had the power to make Alec and Biggs come here to be judged, why hadn't Alec told her there was such a person?
She spotted Joshua, Mole, Dix and the others at the same time she heard feet marching. The sound reverberating through her brain her memory plunged her back to when she was a child in Manticore she watched the circle part as Biggs, Kat, Steve and the rest of Alec's Unit marched into the centre. She knew that formation they were escorting members of their unit for punishment. It wasn't Alec or Biggs it was Todd and Tavis she realized at the same time they snapped to attention and saluted Alec.
What is he doing she agonized. Her horrified eyes fixed on Alec she stood frozen to the spot. The crowd had fallen silent, the agitation and uncertainty gone there was a universal squaring of shoulders as those around her straightened and stood taller. They need this, its familiar to them comforting she realized dispassionately.
Alec watched in horror as they fanned out in formation and saluted him. His memory plunging him back to Manticore and the many times this same Unit had delivered him for punishment in this same manner.
Angrily, he shouted for them to stand down. Fuck knows what she made of that he thought at a loss his eyes going to the section of the crowd he sensed she was in.
She ducked behind a large X5 as his eyes swept the crowd. At least he put an end to that horror, she felt some small comfort that it had obviously unnerved him as much as her. She watched him call Steve over.
As Steve left the circle, Alec thought about what he had to say.
Max, watching him think, realized how few times she had seen him without his trademark smirk or a smile of some sort on his face. Well, he didn't have a smile now. In fact, his face was hard and serious. He looked like Zack, in fact. He looked like every CO she'd ever stood in front of. Must be a universal face she reflected numbly.
She didn't bother to duck when his eyes swung to her. There was no point, she had already sensed Steve at her back.
His eyes locked with hers before moving off and over the crowd.
"Is that what you all want? To recreate Manticore out here where you are free?" He wasn't shouting but his voice filled the quiet.
The silence was absolute.
"You all know the punishment for insubordination while at war is death. You have delivered them to me as Manticore delivered each and everyone of us here up for punishment. Is that what you expect to happen here, do you expect me to kill them?"
Silence.
"Do you expect me to kill them? Answer," he barked harshly into the silence.
"No." They boomed as one back at him.
Thank the fuck for that, he thought as a wave of dizziness hit him. "What do you want from me here today, then?" Gesturing at his own Unit for silence, his eyes back on Max he waited for someone to answer.
"We need a CO to lead this monkey's tea party. Its not working without one. Too many of us are dying. You're the highest ranking and we trust you. All those who wanna vote put up ya hands," Mole shouted.
He watched the hands rise. Unanimous, Max thought, as she raised her own hand. Alec watching her hand go up closed his eyes in relief.
Wearily, he gestured his acceptance. "Todd, Tavis confined to quarters. Report to me in the morning. Everyone else go home."
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir," Todd and Tavis shot back in unison snapping into a salute.
"Why are you here Steve."
"He needs you to fix his shoulder, he said to make sure I said please."
Max, her eyes on the blood soaking the back of his jacket, started to push her way through the now moving crowd.
Don't thank me yet, you pricks, wait until you see what I've got in store for you for all the trouble you've caused me, Alec thought, watching Max and her thunderous face as she pushed her way through the crowd towards him.
TBC
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