Chapter 5
AN: Sorry it took awhile to get this chapter up. I've been busy. Thanks to X5898. I tried the whole separate by using characters. It just doesn't show up for some reason. I'll keep trying though.
The next morning found Tegan walking around the perimeter without being seen. She had snuck out of Alec's apartment while he slept to look around. Pausing at a corner, she frowned then sighed and walked out into the open.
"Guess I'm in trouble huh?" she asked Alec, who was leaning against a wall.
"Oh, just a little," he said sarcastically. "Care to tell me why you're sneaking around?"
"I'm looking for a way to get supplies in," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest.
"And you didn't wake me up because…?"
"You looked all cute sleeping," she admitted. Looking up at the sky, she asked, "Is there much aerial surveillance of this place? How fast do you think they'd be able to get planes and shit here?"
"Why? What do you have in mind?" he asked.
"Hmmmm…I need to do some hacking," she told him, walking back in the direction of his apartment. He followed close behind.
As soon as she entered the apartment, she made a beeline for her backpack, which she rummaged through before pulling out a very thin laptop and some wire. She hooked the wire up to the laptop then pulled out her phone and hooked the other end up to that.
Turning the laptop on, she hunched over it, her fingers flying over the keys. He watched, somewhat amazed, as she pulled up a page of military and police department resources in the area. Saving each file, she pulled the wire out of the phone, picking up the phone and dialing a number.
"Colin, send me whatever you have. I want to be able to do some work before it's a decent hour in New York and I can call Dad."
She hung the phone up, reconnecting the wire to the phone. Looking up at Alec after accepting the file her cousin was sending, she said, "This is gonna take awhile. Wanna go get some food with me?"
Alec rolled his eyes. Like he was just going to let her go strolling off wherever she wanted alone. "Fine, but you're explaining some things."
"Ookay," she said innocently, strolling out the door with Alec in tow.
&. &. &. &. &.
Max was sitting in the cafeteria when Tegan and Alec entered. She watched, amused, as girls descended upon Alec, who didn't even notice. He was too wrapped up in talking to Tegan. Chuckling, she took a bite of her breakfast.
"This is like watching television…only better," she commented to Mole and Joshua, who were sitting with her.
Mole grunted then said, "That the new girl?"
"Yeah," Max said, not taking her eyes off of the pair, who were placing food on trays.
Joshua stared at them. "Alec happy."
"Sure looks like it, doesn't it?" Max commented with a sly smile.
Mole rolled his eyes. "Might as well be human," he muttered.
Alec led the way to the table Max was sitting at and they both sat down. "What's so funny?" Alec asked, seeing Max's smile.
"Oh, nothing," she told him, the grin getting bigger.
He shrugged but Tegan looked carefully at Max then smiled, glancing over at Alec with raised eyebrows before returning her gaze to Max. Max's grin remained as she shrugged. Tegan's attention drifted to the two other occupants of the table.
"Hey, I'm Tegan."
"These handsome guys are Joshua and Mole," Alec told her.
"Nice to meet you both."
Joshua sniffed. "Cat in your cocktail."
With a laugh, Tegan said, "Well, no cocktail really but yeah, I'm part cat. You've got dog in yours. Definitely. I guess it's good that this cat likes dogs huh?"
"Good," Joshua said with a nod. "Good that this dog likes cats."
She grinned. "Yeah, I'd say so. Oh, Max, would you have anyplace I could work around here? I just need some desk space or something. I don't want to take up Alec's apartment and I feel kinda bad being in there if he's got stuff he needs to take care of here."
"I'm sure we can spare something. Oh, before I forget, your company's computer system apparently fried Logan's computer so if you have a few minutes to spare, could you go over there and help him out?"
Tegan giggled. "Encountered the infamous Pride computer system huh? Sucks for him. There might be no hope for his computer. I'll check it out though," she told Max.
"Thanks," Max said, absently thinking about how much more peaceful her life would be if Logan weren't bitching about his computer.
"I, um, may have figured out a way to get supplies in. If you want me to go through with it you just have to let me know," Tegan hesitantly told Max softly.
Max's head shot in her direction. "You did? How?"
"Uh helicopters. My dad can get us some I'm sure. Pilots too. You just have to let me know what exactly you need."
"What about air patrols?" Max asked with a frown.
"Hacked in. They wouldn't be able to get here in time to stop it," Tegan informed her. "I can show you what I got off the system if you want to see it."
"Yeah, that'd be great. We've got a pretty extensive list of what we need," Max told her.
Tegan looked at her with an odd expression on her face. "What happened between yesterday and now that's making you a hell of a lot nicer to me?"
Max raised an eyebrow. "Nothing. Just hard for you to get in trouble with Alec up your butt."
Tegan watched as Max stood up. "Back to work for me," she told the group. Mole followed her, saying something about ammunition. Turning back to the occupants of the table, she found Joshua staring at her.
"Little fella too busy. Need fun."
"It kinda looks like everybody could use some fun, Joshua," she told him, taking a bite of her breakfast.
The three of them all looked around the cafeteria. Nearly everybody in the room looked extremely stressed or tired. "You are all gonna just crash if you keep it up," Tegan commented. "Even Federal agents have more fun than you have here."
"And you would know that, right?"
Tegan smirked and pulled her government ID from her pocket, showing it to him. He looked at the ID absently. "Is that thing real?"
"As real as can be," she told him, sticking it back in her pocket.
"Somehow I'm not surprised. Let me guess. The President is related to you."
"No blood relation there. Just by marriage."
"Ah, of course."
She stuck her tongue out at him and his gaze was drawn to her mouth. "Shouldn't have done that," he told her, without taking his eyes off of her lips.
"Why not?" she asked.
"You'll find out soon enough," he told her, turning his attention back to his breakfast.
Rolling her eyes, she turned to Joshua. "So, Joshua, what do you do for fun?"
"Paint! And read Father's books."
"Very nice. I'd like to see whatever you paint sometime."
"Painted flag on top of Headquarters," he told her, proudly.
"I'll take a look at it later today then!" she told him with a genuine smile. "If you're around maybe you can show it to me because that would be even better."
"You paint?" Joshua asked.
"Nah, I can't even draw a stick figure but I love looking at paintings and stuff."
Alec noticed that Tegan had finished with her breakfast and quickly ate the last bite of his then stood up. "C'mon, Tegan. We should go check on your laptop then I'll bring you over to Logan."
Tegan sighed, leaning over the table. "I think he's trying to get rid of me," she told Joshua in a stage whisper. "It was nice meeting you. Hopefully you can show me that flag of yours soon, huh?"
Joshua nodded with a smile and Tegan waved goodbye before following Alec outside. Alec was far ahead of her when she rolled her eyes, calling out, "C'mon, Alec, wait up. I could totally run away right now and then you'd get in trouble."
He stopped on the street, leaning against a corner of a building and watching her as she approached. As she reached him, he pushed her gently into an alleyway then against a wall, trapping her there with his hands pressed against the wall on either side of her head.
"Guess I'm finding out why I shouldn't have stuck my tongue out, huh?" Tegan asked him with a smirk.
"Guess so," he muttered before leaning down and kissing her.
She skimmed her hands up his sides before one snaked up to touch the back of his neck then his hair.
They both heard somebody walking up the street towards their location and Alec jumped away from her, running a hand through his hair. Tegan just smirked again and led the way towards his apartment, passing by the transgenic walking down the street without even looking at him. Alec followed close behind until they reached his building, where he opened the door for her. As she passed by him on her way into the building, he quietly asked, "Did you purr when I kissed you?"
Tegan raised an eyebrow and grinned as she walked inside. "So what if I did?"
"Interesting," Alec said, placing a hand on her lower back as he joined her and they both started climbing the stairs.