Chapter Twenty-Nine
"Have you seen Max lately, Tav?"
Alec had been catching glimpses of her all morning but hadn't managed to catch up with her. It was quiet at the moment and he needed to catch a couple of hours sleep and he wanted to make sure she got some as well.
"No, not for a while. The last time I saw her she was talking to that ordinary female doctor."
"Where are we sleeping?"
"Second door on the left," Tav said jerking his head down the hall.
"Yeah, okay, tell her where I am when you see her, and wake me in a couple of hours, okay."
"Yeah."
It wasn't a huge space and it probably already had at least thirty bodies strewn in small groups across the floor. Scanning the room for where his unit was sleeping he picked his way between the rows of objects surrounding each group careful not to intrude into anyone's marked territory.
His unit was in the far corner and nudging Mark aside with his foot he lay down beside him. He was used to catching sleep where he could, in much more uncomfortable circumstances than this, so he was asleep the minute he closed his eyes.
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She'd been avoiding him all afternoon and she knew it served no real purpose but seeing him so casually and automatically return the ordinary soldiers salutes had unsettled her, as had Todd's easy acceptance of the killing of the familiars after the battle. It had bought home to her the differences between her and Alec, between her and all of them really.
She may have been raised as a soldier for the first half of her life but she hadn't lived that life for ten years now, but Alec and Todd, all of them had. What she'd realized while she'd watched the action in the car park and afterwards seeing Howls men's easy acknowledgement of Alec as an equal, was that he hadn't just been raised as a soldier, he was a soldier. It had started her thinking about a lot of things and specifically about what happened next. Their soldiers now had control within the phase one boundary so what was the next step of the plan?
She'd always just assumed that they would integrate into the civilian population of Seattle how she wasn't sure now. Alec and her had never talked about any of this, whenever she'd raised the issue of what happened afterwards he'd skirted around the subject and the many other pressing issues they had to resolve had always sidetracked them. Tav's reference to eliminating civilian resistance and the easy eradication of the familiars this afternoon had unnerved her. She was now wondering why Alec had always avoided discussing what happened next.
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She couldn't avoid him forever and she needed to sleep anyway. Opening the door she peered into the semi darkness scanning the groups of sleeping figures looking for Alec. Picking her way around the strange collection of clothing and equipment surrounding each group, she found him in the far corner huddled beside Mark, looking cold and uncomfortable.
She spotted a stack of blankets in the wall of objects surrounding the Unit opposite theirs. Tyler's unit she realized as Tyler and two of his males sat up as she removed three blankets. Surprised, clutching the blankets to her chest she met their stares with wary uncertainty.
"I'm sorry guys, she didn't mean to wake you up she doesn't really understand about territory yet." Alec said from behind her shoulder.
"That's okay, we figured that. Take some more and put them over your side Alec," Tyler said gesturing to the blankets.
"Well at least we've got blankets now, Max," he whispered, as he dropped one on an appreciatively grinning Mark. He lay down again and held his blanket open for her. Wrapping herself in her blanket she gingerly squeezed herself between him and the wall. He pulled her back against him and curled his body around her back, his lips on her ear.
"Mark and I didn't fully wake up for you, Max, because you have our pack smell on you. If you breech other males territory and you don't have their pack smell on you, then their instincts wake them up, because you could be a threat. Tyler's unit would have given us the blankets if they'd been awake when we got here, but because they weren't we didn't take them, we never breech another males territory, it's considered very bad form." *Plus for us it's dangerous.*
"I'll find you somewhere more comfortable to sleep tonight," he promised. Settling his cheek on her neck he was asleep again within minutes.
She had seen each unit's sleeping area marked out and had instinctively avoided straying into anyone's territory but she hadn't thought the blankets would matter. There was just still so much she didn't know and she didn't like the feeling of separation she felt from everybody else when she got things wrong, it undermined her confidence and made her feel insecure.
Lying there beside Alec his chest rising rhythmically in sleep behind her back, she closed her eyes and tried to shut out the mixture of disturbing feelings and unease she'd had since the battle in the car park.
Her first waking awareness was that Alec's warmth that had surrounded her when she'd fallen asleep was gone, and she was now cold and uncomfortable. Her next was that the warm body she'd instinctively moved towards didn't smell right. Startled she moved quickly away and sat up.
Alec and Mark had already gone and Tav, Todd, and Jane now slept beside her. Yawning she stretched her stiff muscles, she must have been asleep for a while, but she was still tired. If they were going to be stuck at the hospital for a few more days her first priority was going to have to be to find somewhere more comfortable and preferably private to sleep. She was three months pregnant now and needed a better sleep than a few of hours spent on the floor.
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When she saw Alec again he was standing at the foot of Steve's bed morosely staring at him and a sleeping Kat. She watched from the hall as he moved the few steps to Reuben's bed. Reuben hadn't been out of surgery for as long as Steve, but even to Max's untrained eye his colour was better. Max watched Alec's gaze swing between the two. Obviously he felt the same she decided when his worried gaze flicked back to Steve again.
Her eyes moved on to Karen lying quietly beside Reuben, her blonde hair and fair skin a deep contrast to Reuben's dark hair and olive skin. When she'd found Karen hovering anxiously at the foot of Reuben's bed and told her that he'd been fighting for her, her initial disbelief and then her slow smile of dawning delight had made Max think about Dale and Leah. Now watching Karen lovingly stroking Reuben's arm Max was again reminded of the similarities between her and Reuben and Dale and Leah.
Despite the fact that Karen had absolutely no idea Reuben had been fighting for her there had still been a connection between them. Thoughtfully she remembered Alec saying that without exception, when given the choice between two males the woman unknowingly always chose the male who'd been fighting for her. Did that mean that there was definitely something happening at a deeper more primal instinctive level or was it just a manifestation of the fact that women could intuitively sense the males who cared for them. Her considering eyes flicked back to Alec. *Whatever it was it was fascinating.*
Sensing her there Alec turned and before she could move away from the window his eyes caught hers. Solemnly she returned his gaze. Acknowledging the quirk of her lips as she turned, his quick responsive smile dropped away as he stared after her retreating back. *There was definitely something up with her.*
"This is Tanner to Alec, we got Howl and his brass at the boundary checkpoint. Said they've come for their men, over."
"Yeah roger that Tanner, I'll send them across. His injured stay here, over."
"The brass wants to see you Alec."
"Tough, I've got no reason to see him Tanner, over."
He sensed Max behind him before she spoke. "I think you should see him Alec. The more dialogue we have going with them the better chance we have of a peaceful resolution of things."
"We have no chance of a peaceful resolution of anything, Max," he dismissed. "They have nothing I want and seeing their brass now would only signal weakness. They'd think that I was worried about being able to defend my territory." Before he'd finished talking his attention was already back on his earpiece and something Biggs was telling him.
"Manticore would have thought that it was weakness," she corrected her eyes steady on his. "We aren't Manticore and while we can defend against them, why would we want to risk any of the lives off our own kind unless we have to. What harm can talking to him do?"
"The civilians are your area the military is mine, Max. I know what I'm doing," he dismissed impatiently.
The radio static in her ear she waited while he finished talking to Biggs.
"Sometimes the civilian and the military overlap. Whatever the army launches at us will impact on the civilians as well as us. If we're ever expecting to live alongside them peacefully we'll need to consider them as well as ourselves. I for one would like to see what he wants."
She could tell his attention was back on the radio and he wasn't really listening to her and her anxiety and the feeling of restless unease she had grew.
"Tanner to Alec, this stroppy bastard has bought an ambulance for his injured men and he's quoting the Geneva fucking convention at me." Tanner guffawed.
"No, his injured are staying here, over."
"Yeah, I've already told him that."
"Why Alec?" What harm can it do to let him have his men back, they're no threat to us," she snapped. She knew this wasn't her area of expertise, and she wasn't really meaning to question his judgement but she needed some reassurance some sign that they still shared the common aim of as little bloodshed as possible.
Wearily he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Because, Max, this hospital sits just behind our lines and everyone I have here is vulnerable. Having his injured here with mine also gives him a vested interest in keeping this place safe. He'll know he isn't getting his injured back, Max, and he wouldn't have been expecting his soldiers either. But he's their CO and it's his job to try and get them back."
"I know what I'm doing, Max, it would serve no purpose to meet with him, we have nothing to discuss. If they want to find out what I'm up to they can find out the hard way."
He glanced warily at her and she was again struck by an uncomfortable sense of distance and detachment from him.
"I'd like to know what you're up too as well?" she asked, she could sense his discomfit and it added to her growing anxiety.
"What does happen next, Alec, we've never really talked about it? Tell me?" She'd had enough of worrying about the unknown. At least if they talked about it she'd know if she actually had something to worry about.
She was looking at him with that look of distrust he hadn't seen since before her heat." All to aware of the activity around him he glanced around in frustration, he didn't want to be discussing this in the middle of a gaggle of ordinaries.
"Yeah, we have, once we've consolidated and have complete control within the phase one boundary then we move onto phase two," he offered hoping it would suffice.
Her expression was now a mixture of distrust and impatience, just as it had been prior to her heat, trying to ignore the cold feeling seeping into his heart he turned abruptly away.
She knew that phase two was the moving of their front line of defence to the outskirts of the city, but that wasn't what she'd been talking about, and his defensive eyes told her that he knew that.
She grabbed his arm as he turned away. "No, I don't mean that Alec, I mean now that we are actually here and have control within this boundary, what are we going to do about integrating with the civilians? What are your plans for that? Or are you just going to finish them off with bullets like you did to the familiars?" She knew she'd gone to far and immediately regretted her words.
"No." he answered coldly. "Unfortunately there are too many of them."
He knew he was being an idiot, but the distrust and intolerance in her eyes had been an unpleasant shock, and her harsh reproachful words even more so. Bleakly he stared down at her his expression closed. The civilians were an ongoing dilemma, his training had taught him that civilians were always managed with force and intimidation, and before he'd lived in the ordinary world he hadn't thought to question there was any other way, but now…now, he just plain and simply didn't know what to do about them.
"I'm sorry Alec. It was a stupid thing to say. I didn't mean it." She didn't want that shadowed wariness back when he looked at her and she hated this blank empty eyed look he now had. *Whatever it was he had planned it would be okay.*
"I'm sorry," she whispered again. Her eyes contrite she held his gaze and tentatively moved closer putting her hand on his chest. His body was stiff and unresponsive and she waited hoping he wouldn't rebuff her.
It was only when her hand touched his cheek that his numb feeling started to recede. *She was sorry she didn't mean it.*His eyes searching hers hoping that the new look she had in her eyes when she looked at him now, the one he loved, the one he'd started to take for granted, would be back. She meet his eyes steadily the mistrust gone, and her eyes again full of the emotion that he hadn't realized had become so vital to him, until he'd felt the momentarily pain of its absence.
Her eyes fluttered in relief when his arms closed around her. "I've been worried about what's going to happen with the civilians, what exactly are we going to do now we have military control, Alec? We've never really talked about it and I don't know what you or any of the others want, and I've just been realising that I'm not even really clear in my own mind about where I want to go from here, either," she burst out in a rush.
He didn't really want to talk about it here, but neither could he avoid it for much longer either. Excepting the inevitable he smiled ruefully down at her.
"I um, I don't know either, Max. I know what's required from a military standpoint, but we've never stuck around for the after party so I don't actually know what comes next. I was hoping you were going to help me with that," he shrugged awkwardly.
For a brief moment she thought he was kidding, but when his eyes slid uncomfortably off hers she realized he wasn't, he was deadly serious. For three months he'd planned and strategised to get them this far, with no real idea about where they would go from here.
Sometimes he astounded her. When she thought about it, it made perfect sense, if it didn't fit within his training and his instincts didn't guide him, then he often didn't know what to do, she'd seen that time and time again when he'd first got out of Manticore. He hadn't been avoiding discussing it because he had some Machiavellian plan for the civilians, but because he hadn't known what to do so he'd avoided doing anything. A tactic he'd developed as a result of all the bad decisions he'd made when he had first come out of Maniticore.
*'Logan had remained a problem because Alec hadn't known what to do about him. Know his strengths and know his weaknesses.'* Kats words replayed through her mind.
Her eyes darted quickly back to his and she gazed at him in consternation. *I don't know what we do next, either.*
"We'll figure it out," Her voice sounded hesitant even to her own ears. "We've got this far the rest should be easy," she ventured more certainly.
She surveyed the ER from the secure circle of his arms. "I mean how hard can it be?" she asked, already feeling a lot more confident her sense of alienation gone and in its place the familiar feeling of protection and strength she always felt when he had his arms around her. Between them they would figure it out.
"Yeah we'll figure it out," he agreed with confidence. She would deal with the civilians and he would deal with the military. Perfect as far as he was concerned. Rubbing his cheek across the top of her head his resolute eyes swept the ER crowded with their soldiers.
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Cass felt a lot better, even a couple of hours sleep was better than nothing. Nothing appeared to have changed since she'd been away. Again she found herself hovering at the slat-covered window of the treatment room the transgenics were in, hoping that everything was also okay in there. She knew from Brian, who was allowed into their treatment room, that they were all off the critical list except for the two chest wounds.
Her glance swept over the peaceful angelic face of the blonde girl sleeping beside Reuben. His colour looked good and that was always a positive sign.
Her eyes moved onto Kat propped on her elbow beside Steve. She knew Brian was worried about him he'd been nearly twenty-four hours out of surgery and didn't seem to be improving. Cass watched in sympathy as Kat's face crumpled and she started to sob despairingly as she stroked Steve's face.
She hadn't realized the arterial bleed had regained consciousness until he lent over the red headed beauty lying beside him. Trailing long fingers across her cheek and down her neck he carefully slid his shoulder out from underneath her cheek, and sitting up he swung his injured leg to the edge of the bed.
What the hell Cass thought in alarm, automatically moving to the door. *He could easily tear the internal stitches and start the bleed again.* Collecting herself she remembered that this was one of the ones that Dex had said was particularly paranoid about non-transgenic medical personnel. In a dilemma as to whether she should intervene anyway she watched anxiously as he swung his injured leg stiffly onto the floor.
The look on his face was an almost comical mix of pain and surprise and she knew the surprise was because he'd just realized he was naked. She waited hoping that might send him back to bed on his own, without pausing he stood awkwardly upright.
Cass stopped just short of the door as the red head woke up. Her sleepy expression turning quickly from delight that he was conscious to alarm that he was on his feet. Dex by this time had also glanced up from the patient he was working on.
"Get the fuck back into bed Dale, you'll pull out all my stitches." Cass heard him call in exasperation from across the room.
The red head was already up and with her shoulder against his chest and her hand on his stomach she urged him back to bed. Cass couldn't hear what was being said but the girl glanced over her shoulder at Steve and Kat, and Cass realized the arterial bleed had been headed for them.
The one they called Todd was already patting a still sobbing Kat's back in comfort as he pulled a chair up to Steve's bed.
Cass could see that the girl had got Dale back into bed and she could tell by her angry little frown and the speed of her talk as she fussed with the bedding that Dale was being told off. Dale's rapt gaze followed her every movement until she moved close enough for him to grab. She stopped mid scold and they stared raptly at each other. Cupping her face with one hand he combed her hair back with the other.
As Cass turned away, out of the corner of her eye, she saw him making room as she climbed back onto the bed with him.
The more she saw of these transgenics and their interaction with each other the firmer her conviction that they were good people. They all seemed to have an instinctive culture of care for each other that her world could do well to emulate. Making all the stuff she was hearing in the media about the threat they proposed to humanity a little hard to understand.
Despite the male's distrust of medical people, they hadn't proposed any personal threat to her staff, apart from the aggressive Alec and even he'd been well controlled by Max, who barely came up to his shoulder. It was hard to put them in the media frame of cold-blooded animalistic killers.
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Grimly Anderson surveyed the four hard faced transgenics ranged across the road an informal barrier blocking the path his ambulance needed to be on if he wanted to uplift his injured men.
Initially he'd come here thinking he could trade some sort of amnesty or safe passage in exchange for his men. But from the moment the arrogant Tanner and his men had stepped casually out into the road in front of them he'd had a bad feeling,
When Tanner had indifferently told him his men were being sent out to him it had shocked the hell out him. But as the recon birds he had sent up had relayed what they were seeing to him, and he had started to get a real understanding of the scale of this offensive he'd known exactly why his men were being sent out to him.
Alec purely couldn't be bothered keeping them, and the sublime message to Anderson was that he considered him and his men of so little threat that giving them back to him was of little consequence. As pissed as this made Anderson he couldn't help but admire the fact that not only was this Alec a good combat soldier he was an instinctive tactician as well.
When Anderson had demanded his critically injured be returned to him he'd known it was fruitless. Alec was hold up in that hospital because he had injured in there. If the positions had been reversed position he wouldn't have given him back his injured either. *Tactical good sense.*
Dispassionately his gaze fell on Tanner as he and Howl talked quietly. He'd always known that the special ops guys had been young, but how young had still been a shock. His eyes ranged over Tanner and the rest of his men he could see, there were more, he knew that, his instincts had always been good, its what made him a good soldier and his instinct for threat had been in overdrive ever since the baby faced, insolent Tanner's cool eyes had locked with his.
Tanner had evidently led the other unit that had extricated Buzz's men from the African fiasco. Another damn good soldier Anderson acknowledged, watching Tanners alert eyes constantly moving over Anderson's vehicles full of soldiers banked down the road, the transgenics were casually strung across, their M16's at the ready.
He had at least two hundred men behind him and Tanner appeared to have ten. Uneasily Anderson cast his eyes to the buildings around him and into the shadows. There had been no direct threats made to him and his men, he had merely been told that this was Transgenic territory and he could not enter. His request to see their CO had been declined.
"Nah, he don't wanna see ya. Go home." Had been Tanner's indolent reply, and Anderson had fought the urge to tell him to stand up straight and not to speak to his elders so disrespectfully.
The only sensible thing left for him to do was take his men, and go back to his base. He needed to look at the video surveillance his birds had collected and see what Intel Tremaine had managed to unearth about these transgenics.
Still it was a shame he'd really wanted to meet Alec, and his nose for trouble had already told him if he didn't meet him today, then the circumstances when they did meet would probably be to neither of their liking.
He watched his liberated men climb into one of his vehicles, they looked none the worst for wear a few bruises and cuts but nothing serious. Striding over to Tanner he extended his hand and waited for him to take it. Tanner looked insolently down at his hand and then up to his eyes.
"I don't hold hands with other boys, you aren't my flavour," Mockingly he returned Anderson's steadfast stare.
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"I've always wanted to shake the hands of the special Ops soldiers responsible for the Tanzanistan extraction. That was damn fine soldiering,"
Tanner ran a rude eye back down to his extended hand and up to his eyes again. Anderson remained there with his hand extended and his eyes unwavering on his. Finally Tanner extended his hand and shook it. Anderson snapped into a salute and Tanner returned it automatically and unthinkingly. Anderson had to suppress a smile at the kids pissed of expression when he realized what he'd done. *So well trained their discipline is automatic, but still little more than kids. A fucking dangerous combination if not properly controlled.*
"What do you think?" Anderson asked as they drove away. Buzz's grim faced silence confirmed what Anderson already suspected.
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Max leant exhaustedly back in her chair, she was absolutely shattered. She glanced across at Alec who looked even more exhausted than she was. It was early evening and she'd been on her feet for nearly forty-eight hours now with only a few hours sleep, and she knew Alec had had even less. They hadn't stopped all day. The logistics of sorting everything out were phenomenal, but between them she didn't think they'd done to badly.
Up until now Alec's plan had been untested strategy, but now that they were actually doing it, now that they were actually on their way to creating a free, safe transgenic controlled zone it was hard not be overwhelmed. She'd thought the sheer scale of the military effort daunting enough but she was coming to realize that the other ancillary things were just as important if not more so.
The military stuff Alec and Tav had handled and she'd handled the civilians and all the related issues that had arisen. Some things they'd had to concur on, and for the most part they'd worked well together, and when they'd disagreed they had managed to sort it out. However she knew that today they'd only scratched the surface of what needed to be done.
Seattle didn't really know they were here yet. Sure their soldiers where now manning checkpoints and police stations but Seattle was used to that, there had always been soldiers all over the city and theirs looked no different to those before them. This respite wouldn't last forever but while it did it provided much needed time to start to consolidate. From what Max had managed to hear as she worked Alec was going to use the time to finish setting up the utility installations.
Radio and TV stations they'd decided after much heated debate to leave alone for the moment. Alec had wanted to put their people in them straight away, but her instincts had told her to wait and see how things developed. In the end he had agreed to leave it for the moment and revisit it once they had discussed it within their wider group.
That the civilian population didn't know they were here had been a surprising development and her instincts were telling her that it could be used to their advantage. She didn't know how yet, she needed to think about it, but the smoother things ran initially the better it had to be in the long term. The other hugely surprising thing is that the army, seemed for the moment to be letting them alone as well, it wouldn't last but it had bought them some more time to entrench themselves.
Alec and Tav were planning something as well, she wasn't sure what but she'd heard some discussion about how long before they could move their injured and whether the time frames would tie in with whatever it was they were planning. She'd hadn't heard the rest because she'd been called away at that point.
A combat unit that Biggs had sent to help a police team clear out a building being used as local headquarters by a gang off very nasty sounding criminals, had needed one of her support units. They'd discovered during the course of the operation, that the place was also being used as a holding pen for women and children being detained against their will, to be suppled as slave labour for the sex industry.
She'd wanted to go and sort it out herself but there had been to many other things for her to deal with. The good news was that five of the rescued children were transgenic and were now safe in TC. The police were evidently locating the ordinary women and children's families.
Alec groaned and flexed his stiff shoulders, leaning back in his chair he stretched his legs in front of him and closed his eyes in exhaustion. Max's studied his tired features the familiar angular planes of his face, her eyes roamed lingeringly down his body and she felt her nipples peak in desire for him.
Frustrated, she remembered promising herself that she'd find somewhere more comfortable for them to sleep tonight, but she just hadn't had time yet. She certainly wasn't going to spend an uncomfortable night on the floor. Slowly she stretched her tired muscles, her attention once again back on Alec.
He felt her move behind him and then her warm hands were on his shoulders massaging his stiff muscles.
"Oh god, that's good, Max." His deep sigh of appreciation made her smile. One of the things that always made it so easy to do anything for Alec, was that he never took what she did for him for granted, even the small things like this.
He groaned his approval when she moved to his neck. Working the tight muscles she looked down to where his hair curled cutely above his barcode and again felt another surge of desire hot and strong. Bending down she teased his ear, tracing her tongue around the outer edge before dipping it inside.
"I want you Alec," she whispered, "Just you and me somewhere comfortable and private."
He was so tired he could hardly move but her warm breathy whisper in his ear had an immediate affect on his body.
"Yeah, me too, Max. Just keep doing that for a while and then I'll go and find somewhere," he murmured, rolling his shoulders his eyes closed in lethargic pleasure.
She could feel his tension start to ease and his body relax as she worked the kinks from his tight muscles. He'd been quiet and still under her hands for a while and his breathing was now steady and she knew that despite his good intentions he would be asleep soon if she didn't move.
"You stay here and wait for me, Alec," she whispered into his ear. "I'll find us some where and I'll come back and get you." She kissed the warm skin beneath his ear, and he grunted in weary agreement.
Surprisingly it didn't take her long, in fact she'd only had to ask Tav and he'd told her about this apartment they'd discovered on the top floor of the hospital. Nobody appeared to live there permanently although it did show signs of recent occupation. Maybe used by the hospital staff to rest between shifts. Smiling happily to herself she closed the door and went to get Alec.
Except he wasn't where she'd left him, grumpily she went in search of him. He was shattered and he was going to get some sleep now no matter what else was going on, Tav and Todd were perfectly capable of handling things tonight. When she found him, he was asleep beside Steve's bed, his head on his arm and his hand over Kats where it rested on Steve.
He didn't even stir when she moved up beside him and stroked his hair, and neither did Kat, but Steve's eyes flickered open and fixed on her. Her breath caught in her throat Max watched them flutter shut before opening again and this time focusing on her.
"Hey Max."
His voice was croaky and weak but it was enough to wake Kat. Max smiled in relieved empathy as a happy sobbing Kat stroked his face.
"You had us really worried, Steve." Alec said sitting up beside her, the relief in his voice undisguisable.
"Shh, Shh, its alright, Kat," Steve whispered croakily," laboriously concentrating on raising his hand.
"Reub how's Reub?" He asked Alec, settling his hand on Kat's hair.
"We're still waiting for him to regain consciousness but his was pretty bad too."
"Shh, I'm okay, Kat, don't cry."
"Ordinary hospital?" He grimaced, answering his own question. His eyes quickly swinging back to Kat his smile reassuring, he brushed her tears away with his fingers.
"Yeah, and you've been out for a little over twenty four hours now. Phase one went according to plan except we expanded the boundary a bit to include this hospital. We lost Mike but so far no other deaths."
Steve's eyes fluttered closed again as Alec's hand closed around Max's.
"I'll send Dex over to check you out, try and get some sleep now and get your adrenalin stores back up."
She knew how much his worry about Steve had been weighing on him and she could feel his renewed energy as he pulled her out into the hall.
"Dex said Reub is doing fine and should be conscious by morning too."
It was good to see some of the weight of worry gone from him.
"Now how about I find us somewhere private to sleep so I can take you up on that irresistible proposition you made me." His eyes were teasing and full of heat as they roamed suggestively over her.
"I've found us somewhere," she grinned pulling him towards the lifts. Tav knows where it is so you don't need to tell him where we'll be."
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He had her backed against the door and was already kissing her as she fumbled to open it. She giggled in happy anticipation, his hands encircled her waist and still kissing her he walked her backwards into the little apartment.
His lips left hers and his head went up with a jerk. "No, not here Max, I'll find us somewhere else." He already had the door open as he grabbed her hand.
"Why, what's wrong with this place?" she asked, looking around her in bewilderment.
"Come on, I'll find us someplace else?" he snapped, reaching again for the hand she'd pulled from his.
"There's nothing wrong with this place, Alec. There IS nowhere else and this is where we're sleeping." Pulling him by the hand he'd reclaimed, she headed for the bedroom.
*The scent of the ordinary white coats was all over the place he could smell the one called Cass particularly strongly.*
"Its better than our own apartment," she ventured, mystified as she watched him gaze distastefully around him.
"Yeah, but our apartment smells like us, not like them," he said with disdain.
Now he mentioned it she could smell ordinaries, but she could everywhere, to her they were a persistent background scent that she didn't even notice. *Obviously not the case for Alec.*
"The smell of ordinaries has never bothered you before, Alec?"
Looking at him standing warily in the doorway she intuitively knew it had something to do with what he'd been talking to Dex about, something to do with his aversion to ordinary doctors.
"It'll smell like us and sex soon enough, Alec," she purred, her eyes hot and full of promise as she pulled him by his hand toward the bed. It's either here or back on the floor with everybody else," she added as further inducement.
His eyes darted warily around the room before they touched hers again, and she realized with amazement that he really would prefer the shared floor to sleeping here.
"The floors too uncomfortable for me now, Alec," she added quietly.
Her hand on the side of his face she turned him to her. "It'll be alright," she whispered soothingly, not understanding why but intuitively knowing he needed to be soothed. "The only smell in here will soon be ours," she murmured seductively, pushing his shirt up his body and pulling it over his head. "Just concentrate on me and my scent." She pulled his head down to her as she fumbled with his belt with her other hand.
She had all of his clothes off and most of hers but the eager enthusiasm he usually had wasn't there. Sitting up from the prone position she'd pushed him into, he pulled her still partly clothed body down to him and buried his face in her neck.
"You smell so good, Max, you always smell good."
"Hmm so do you," she breathed inhaling his clean musky scent as she nuzzled his ear. He lay quietly against her his breath warm on her neck as she stroked his hair.
"Why don't you like ordinary doctor's Alec," she asked finally.
"Same reasons you don't." She could feel his lips moving soft and warm against her neck when he finally answered.
"But you're scared of them, Alec," she said quietly. "I'm not."
He didn't answer her so she continued to stroke his hair. "I love you Alec," she said not knowing what else to say when she felt his tears on her neck.
His arms around her tightened and he settled his cheek into the curve of her shoulder and she felt the murmur of his lips on her neck.
"I don't ever want to talk about it Max, ever. You deal with them and everything will be fine. We'll be back in TC in a few days anyway."
"Yeah," she agreed. "I'll deal with them."
If he didn't want to talk about it then he didn't have too. She knew from her own experience that there were some wounds that went so deep that they were best left alone, and if this was one of his, then so be it. Blinking back her tears before they could fall she tightened her arms around him.
His eyes fluttered closed as she stroked her fingers across his barcode and played with the hair at the nape of his neck. When she touched him like this it made him feel as close to her as he felt when he was buried deep inside her. The smell of the ordinary medics was still in the room but she'd been right their own smell was stronger now.
He nuzzled his nose into the warm tender spot just behind her ear and her sweet heady scent filled his senses, chasing everything else away until she was the only thought in his head. Pulling back from her his eyes roamed her face, her long sweeping lashes brushed her cheek and he could see the beginning of tears glistening in the corner of her eyes.
"Don't cry Max," he said thickly. "I can't bear to see you cry and not for me. Not now, when I'm the happiest, that I've ever been, in my life."
"Yeah, I am too," she agreed huskily. "Having you and the baby, and being back with my own kind, has made everything up until now worthwhile."
She was so beautiful, and now her face also had an inner glow of contentment and happiness that he knew was there because she was happy with him. Every time he made her giggle and smile he knew he was doing things right and it did make him feel that everything to get to this point had been worth enduring.
He'd dreamed about being like this with her for so long, being able to tell her he loved her and knowing she loved him. He looked down into upturned face, her tears were gone and her eyes were content and trusting as she smiled serenely at him.
His heart full and content his palm cupping her cheek he stroked her hair away from her temple." I love you too, Max." *It wasn't even hard to say.*
"Yeah, I know," she whispered rubbing the pad of her finger across the surprising softness of his lower lip.
"You know." His uncertain frown made her smile.
"Yeah." "I've sort of known since my heat. I knew by the way you touched me, and kissed me," she said softly, lost in the green gold depths of his eyes. "But it just took me a while to understand," she whispered.
"How do you know that I love you?" Tucking his hair behind his ear, her heart in her eyes she waited for him to answer. She watched him think about it the emotion churning in his eyes as they roamed her face.
"The same way, Max, by the way you touch me and by the sound you make when I touch you," His voice was husky and deep and a stab of fierce longing sliced through her.
"Yeah, that would give it away," she whispered, still caught in the pull of his eyes.
"But also by the way you treat me now too." Holding her eyes with his he stoked his thumb along her delicate jawbone and touched his nose gently to hers. "I like it, it makes me feel like you care about me." he added his voice warm and low.
Despite what was happening in the outside world, here with Alec everything was perfect. Not only had he told her he loved her but he'd accepted that she loved him. She was getting it right. Unable to contain her happiness she grinned her pleasure.
Powerless to curb is own grin he dipped his head and nuzzled her ear his breathe warm and deliciously tickling on her neck.
She giggled that deep throaty sound full of pleasure and promise that always grabbed him low in his gut.
"I love it when you giggle Max." His kissed little nibbling bites along her neck.
"What, I don't giggle." she spluttered. "I laugh," she said indignantly.
Her affronted dignity made him smile.
"Hmm, but I like your giggle much better," he whispered huskily, trailing his tongue tantalizingly around the arch of her ear. "Its so sexy," he breathed his tongue moving sensuously in and out of her ear.
"Mmm," her eyes fluttered languidly, and her hand on the side of his face she held his mouth on her.
"You only ever giggle for me," he murmured, his tongue now laving the sensitive join behind her ear, "and its usually when I've made love to you so long, and so well, that giggles are the only things left in your head."
His sheer arrogance made her laugh again.
"See, giggling, and you only ever do it for me."
"Yeah," she agreed, "that's because," she pulled his head quickly down so she could reach his ear. "You're the only one who's ever made love to me, so," she dipped her tongue behind his ear, "So, comically," she giggled.
Her warm breathe and the vibration in his ear from her renewed giggling was tickling him.
"You giggle to," she said triumphantly hearing his deep, throaty, spine tingling sound. She loved it when he laughed like that it was only ever when he was relaxed and playful like this, and only ever when they were alone like this.
"I don't," he denied. His lips were on her ear again and his deep voice sent tickling vibrations through her making her shiver with delicious anticipation. Kissing his way across her cheek he teased her lips, rubbing his softly back and forth across hers. Her eyes drifted languidly shut as she inhaled his warm breath.
"Max," he murmured his breath mixing with hers, before his mouth finally claimed hers and she was aware of nothing but Alec and the pleasure of his mouth on hers.
When he finally broke the kiss to trail his lips across the downy softness of her cheek, her eyes fluttered languorously open and he could see the flush of heat across her cheeks and the pulse point that throbbed erratically at the base of her throat. He was barely touching her and she was aroused and already wanting him. He loved that about her.
"What do you want me to do, Max?" he asked softly, stroking his thumb across the curve of her cheek and down the side of her face. She made that deep satisfied feline sound of pleasure that she made low in her throat, and moved her cheek against the caress of his thumb her eyes dreamy and content as her eyelids flickered.
In one fluid movement he rolled to his side and guided her down until she was flat on her back beside him, he bent his head to her and she could feel the shiver of his warm breathe against the vulnerable column of her throat. Touching his lips to the throbbing beat of her pulse he closed his eyes in pleasure when she whispered his name, her voice soft with yearning.
"What Max?" he whispered again, kissing along the same path his thumb had taken. The deep rumble of his voice sent a shiver of pleasure down her spine.
Her fingers curved around the nape of his neck she pulled his head back down her lips seeking his.
The plunge of her tongue in his mouth was a sweet and welcome intrusion and it sent another rush of blood to his already engorged groin. Her tongue explored as she deepened the kiss probing and seeking all his sensitive nerves. When he had to finally break the kiss to breath she pulled him impatiently back down to her.
His finger on her lips halted her. "What do you want me to do, Max?" he asked again his eyes heavy on her.
Her eyes roamed his strong, beautiful face, and his consuming, hungry, possessive expression made her ache with longing. Her mind flashed back to another time when that same expression had made her feel like this.
"The same thing I wanted you to do when I named you," she whispered back, her enthralled eyes liquid with anticipation.
Surprised, he searched her upturned face. He thought back to when she'd named him, to when she had made him like everybody else, a person and not just a number. That was when he'd felt the first fierce surge of desire for her. With a small, satisfied half smile he remembered the look that had fleetingly passed through her eyes, the look he'd dismissed as just his own wishful thinking.
"Did you want me to do this, Max?" Yeah, she admitted silently as his mouth opened over hers, his tongue probing the sweet seductive warmth of hers. The taste of him and the heady male scent so uniquely Alec invaded her senses as he moved his mouth over hers, her eyelids fluttered closed and she gave herself up to the irresistible hunger of his kiss.
He gazed lingeringly down her body from her lush, rounded, lace-covered breasts down to the little triangle of black lace sitting tantalizingly just below the curve of her stomach, she looked so sexy as she lay there watching him look at her. Smiling brazenly she parted her legs in wanton invitation.
She watched him swallow and his eyes flicked quickly back to hers before they stroked back down her body again. Her eyes closed lazily and her lips parted as he cupped her satin covered mound and she lifted her hips into his hand
"Did you want this too, Max?" he asked his voice raw, his face intense and rapt as he looked from her flushed, heated face down her arched body to where she moved wantonly against his hand.
"Yeah, she breathed, lifting her hips as he slid her panties down her legs.
"I wanted it to," he whispered silkily, his hand sliding across her stomach and around her back as she turned into him.
"Sometimes I had to call the guard early-" he slid his other arm under her and she could feel his hot breath on her neck. "cause I wanted you so bad I was afraid you'd guess.-" He undid her bra and turning her onto her back he slid the straps down his eyes following his hands as he pulled it off.
She waited until his eyes were back on hers again, "I did, Alec, but I was scared," she whispered, remembering how intent his eyes had been on her whenever he though he was unobserved. "You scared me, you were so intense and I was scared about how you made me feel and I…I didn't want to find anything like that in Manticore, I…"
"It doesn't matter Max," he interrupted, his hand on her stomach his fingers splayed as he enclosed it. "You're mine now and that's what matters, I don't care about before," he murmured against her lips his breath mingling with hers. "Just now."
Her lips opened under his and her tongue invaded his mouth, her fingers moving through his hair as her mouth cradled his, her tongue luring his deeper into the richness of her kiss. When she was kissing him nothing else mattered, there were no empty places in his heart, no bad memories, nothing, just her and the pleasure of her mouth on his.
When he finally released her mouth they were both breathing heavily. When he closed his hand around her breast he could feel the erratic beating of her heart. His face absorbed he traced her engorged nipple with his finger. Her voluptuous sigh of pleasure brought his heavy lidded eyes to hers and desire for him burned through her body.
She whimpered as he rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, her eyes closed involuntarily and she squirmed as he moved his thumb across its swollen tip. When he bent his head and his tongue touched the engorged bud she moaned and arched up into his mouth. By the time he turned his attention to her other breast her head was moving restlessly from side to side and her hand was stroking the side of his face as he held her breast and suckled her. The soft needy sounds she made further fired his desire for her.
Max felt the trail of sensation his fingers left as they stroked across the sensitised skin of her belly. Her eyes meshed with his and excitement mixed with eager anticipation when she saw her own wild hunger reflected back from the heat of his eyes.
He reached down between her legs to find her hot and eager and waiting for him, and she arched up as he slid a long finger inside her and moaned low and long when sensation radiated from where he touched her.
Alec swallowed and his heated glance roamed lingeringly down her body. *So beautiful.* "Don't close your eyes," he whispered hoarsely as she thrashed under his hand.
Struggling to keep her eyes open she tried to focus on him. He could feel her contracting around his finger as he stoked her clit with his thumb and moved his finger inside her.
Her eyes were glazed and her throaty, "please Alec," was lost in his mouth as he sealed his lips over hers and thrust his tongue into her mouth. She sent her tongue to meet his and whimpered incoherently as the thrust of his tongue mirrored the movement of his finger in her body.
When he broke their kiss and his fingers left her hot warmth, her moan of disappointment quickly turned to a strangled sigh of anticipation when she felt him start to move down her body. She opened her legs and closed her eyes in bliss when she felt his mouth on her inner thigh and as he licked and sucked a path along her heated skin, once again she thanked god for her heat.
His hands on her knees he spread her wide as he continued to take little nibbling bites along her thigh moving towards her eager heat. Her breathy whisper of his name ignited his need to taste her and made him want to hear more of her cries. His tongue touched her wet warmth and he licked until he reached her swollen bud.
She moaned and wiggled her total focus on Alec, his mouth on her and what his talented tongue was doing to her body. He kept licking and flicking his tongue across her swollen flesh as she bucked under him, her moans were continuous now small, little breaths of sound as her body started to quiver and her muscles clench.
Her legs came together trapping him and her taste and scent urged him on. He stopped his gentle lapping and took her clit gently between his teeth and flicked it with his tongue, he felt her start to spasm and buck as he tried to hold her steady the sound of his name was now a long moan on her lips as she trembled her release. Changing his rhythm back to long slow gentle licks her moans became whimpers and her body relaxed under him.
"Alec, she whispered her hand on his shoulder urged him up.
Moving quickly over her he rolled her beneath him and she sighed in pleasure when she felt the warm, familiar weight of his hard body pinning her to the bed and the welcome pressure of his erection as it throbbed against the softness of her abdomen.
Taking hold of himself he groaned blissfully as he slid slowly into her and grunted in satisfaction when she hastily wrapped her legs around him and pulled him down until he was buried deep. He buried his face in her neck and savoured the heady pleasure of just being inside her, he could still feel the little tremors from her orgasm as she clenched around him.
Her hand in his hair she pulled his head up from her neck and searched frantically for his mouth. Clinging to him she kissed him hot and hard her tongue swirling in his mouth. He stroked slowly in and out of her just savouring her warm heat and the feel of her hot, wet, and tight as she clenched around him milking him until he was mindless with sensation.
Her hands roamed his back leaving a trail of heat on his skin, her soft pliant body underneath him and her sound a continuous pleasure in his ear was driving him wild pushing him over the edge of control.
"Faster Alec." She gasped into his ear. She groaned in appreciation when his tempo immediately quickened and he drove inside her until his thick hard length pounding into her body was her only awareness. Trying to bring him closer, deeper, she tightened her legs around him and pushed up harder. She was immediately rewarded with a change in pace that made her gasp as he continued to pound into her.
"Deeper," she moaned clinging to him as her body started to spasm and her climax began to shudder through her. Her interior muscles clenched, and spasmed around him and he continued to power as deeply into her as he could reach. His head reared back and his low visceral grunt brought her eyes to his face, she felt him tense and his feral eyes riveted on hers just at that moment when his body shuddered into his climax and he surged wet and hot into her.
Leaning on his hands above her his breathing harsh and laboured he struggled to focus on her, when he did her eyes were closed and she had a blissful, contented, satisfied grin on her face. Rolling onto his back he lay panting beside her when she turned her head to look at him he gazed back at her their eyes locked as his breathing evened out.
Rolling to his side he bent over her his head supported by his hand. His hand under her chin he turned her to him kissing her lightly, her hand immediately went to his neck and she held him steady as she deepened the kiss. Releasing his mouth she lay beside him smiling softly to herself.
"What are you thinking about Max," he asked, tracing her lip with his tongue.
"About the baby."
"What about it." Curious now he stopped nuzzling her ear and looked at her.
"We'll be able to feel it moving soon," she said softly turning her head to him.
"It's still very small," he said doubtfully, his eyes following his hand to her stomach.
Pushing the sheet down she looked down her body at her stomach. "Yeah, I was worried about that too, but Cass is a gynaecologist and she examined me and said everything is fine. It's growing at a normal rate and I will start getting noticeably bigger from now on."
He was scowling from the moment she said the ordinary doctors name. "She's okay Alec, I like her, and she is a specialist in babies, she knows what she's doing. You know I'd never put the baby at risk."
"She's going to do an ultra sound scan for us tomorrow to check that everything is fine and we'll be able to see it. That's a picture of the baby taken with sound waves," she explained ignoring his increasing scowl.
"I know what it is, Max. I read all those books you bought home too, but it said they usually do that at four months not three."
"Yeah, well I might not get the chance again so I'm having it now." Her voice was quiet and her eyes left his to look down her body again." Frowning he scanned her face.
"We have four hospitals within our new territory Max why wouldn't you get a chance to do it at four months."
She wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Nothing is going to happen to this baby, Max, nothing," he told her emphatically, turning her face to him and lifting her chin until she had to look at him.
"You can't promise me that, Alec something could, it might…" she trailed off turning her head away again to stare fixedly in front of her.
"Sometimes I feel like it's all a dream and one day I'll wake up and they'll be no baby, and you'll be gone and I'll be back in my old life, alone again, and still trying to be human enough to be acceptable." Her voice was small and she looked so vulnerable her eyes darting quickly to his before they fell away again.
He felt a rush of sadness for her, and the bleakness of the unwitting picture she'd just painted of her life.
"I want you to be there too Alec, it won't be the same if you're not. Please come?" she cajoled pre-empting the objection she was afraid he was going to make. "Please?" she asked again.
*He didn't want that ordinary's hands on Max or the baby, but if they were going to be, then he wanted to be there.*
"Are you sure its necessary, Max, I mean Dex can…"
"I'm sure Alec," she interrupted eagerly, "and Dex thinks it's a good idea too."
*Fucking Dex.* "Yeah, of course I will Max I wanna be there," he answered truthfully, and was rewarded by her beaming grin. *I just don't want any ordinary doctors there.*
"The baby isn't going to disappear Max and neither am I. You're stuck with us," he assured her thickly, aware of how much she wanted this baby and how devastated she'd be if anything did happen to it. At the same time knowing he felt exactly the same.
"It is getting bigger Max," he assured her quietly. His hand gently curved across her stomach he measured it, "I can feel it."
"Yeah," she agreed, peering hopefully down at her stomach, "I was just thinking that too." Smiling in pleasure, her eyes swung to his.
Dipping his head he whispered, "I love you Max," against her lips.
"I love you too Alec." She whispered back her hand over his where it rested on her stomach.
TBC
Please Review it makes me feel good.