Timebomb Central

Chapter 13: Despair and Desperation

She didn't see it coming. He was too fast. The sound of the slap rang around the room. Shock stopped her abruptly and silence fell heavy in the air apart from the heavy breathing of the two over hyped transgenics in the room. Alec's handsome face was twisted in anger. She cowered back from him, for once feeling totally overwhelmed by another being. He was like a huge black cloud in her mind, one that threatened to consume her. A small whimper escaped from her lips.

The tiny figure which had seemed only moments ago to be threatening to rip the place apart was now nothing more than a little frightened girl. Alec backed away. He didn't want to become them. Fear was not his weapon. She was trained to hate Max, she'd been tortured into believing that Max was evil. Clenching his fists by his side and fighting the urge to shake some sense into the girl, he turned on his heel and strode away. He needed to think, to regroup, to find some way to convince Hope that she was doing the right thing by helping Max.

Striding down the hall, he caught glimpses out the of the corner of his eye. People moved back, they saw his conflict. They saw his frustration. Heads dropped in despair as he passed. A lot of faith had been placed on his getting Hope to help, that obviously wasn't going well. He reached her room and hesitated before pushing the door open.

The pale sheen glistening on her skin always made him feel cold. Her stillness, now from the induced coma state they were keeping her in, reminded him too much of what the alternatives were if he couldn't convince Hope to change her mind. Moving across the room silently, as though not to disturb her sleep, he came to stand over her rigid form. He let the palm of his hand cup her cheek. She was warm, reminding him that whatever else, the fight to save her wasn't yet over.

Hope fumed. He'd tried to play her, he'd had the audacity to believe he could make her save that traitor. Even now as she thought of that number 452- all she could see was red. The room around her was littered with reminders of just how angry she had gotten. She was embarrassed that she had let him frighten her into submission. It made her angrier that she had been helpless even if it was only for a few seconds. The coward had walked away from it.

As she began to calm, she realised the emotional ambience in the makeshift hospital had changed. Whereas before there had been fear, suspicion and even hope, now there was anger and despair.

"Good. Let the bitch die." She spat the words at the walls. Yet, her mind was playing tricks on her. It was beginning to think through all the things that had been happening since she'd left the confines of Manticore. Her gut response was that, given the chance, she would have killed their precious Max herself, but something was niggling like a little worm under the surface. She shook her head and got to her feet. Maybe if she kept moving she could escape from the path of logic her brain was beginning to travel down.

A quiet muffled mumbling woke Alec. He lifted his head and remembered where he was. He couldn't help himself, his eyes darted to her face, but the serene stillness remained. His hand, that had clasped hers in his sleep, tightened. Disappointed he turned to seek the source of the disturbance.

Beyond the door, standing in the hall, stood Angel. The look of resignation on her face had his heart plummeting. Angel had been a pillar of determination through all of this. For her to have given up, that was a bad bad sign. He hadn't expected the Manticore conditioning to bite back so hard with Hope. There had been problems at Terminal City with that sort of thinking when they had all first come together but desperation had overcome it, as well as Max's determination to save them all. He'd forgotten how much he'd had to overcome from his own conditioning when he first had to deal with her in that cell so very long ago. That's why they had convinced him to betray her, to get her to work as the carrier to infect Logan. Max had never really forgiven him for that, but she had understood the sort of mind games they had all been subjected to.

Leaning down next to Max's ear, he could feel her gentle breath on his cheek. "I owe you Maxie. I will get her understand, to appreciate being free of Manticore, just like you taught me." He kissed her cheek and reluctantly released her hand. Rearranging his expression to be as determined and positive as he could muster, he turned to Angel. She tried to respond. He saw the effort to force a look of grim determination. She was a good doctor, a good friend. He and Max were lucky she'd made it to T.C., not just for her medical knowledge, as much for her steadying influence.

She silenced him and indicated that they should talk in her office. There were too many ears in the hall. They didn't want to keep secrets but it was important to not let hope get dashed in everyone. Wanting to stay with Max but knowing he and Angel needed to talk he followed the Doctor through to her room. Closing the door behind him, Alec let out a sigh. Angel could see things hadn't gone well but he needed to brainstorm with her about ways to overcome the conditioning as quickly as he could.

"I have bad news." Alec's eyes rose to meet hers abruptly. He couldn't think what further set back she had to tell him about. She passed him Max's file. They were still monitoring her closely. Keeping an eye on her blood work . He saw what had her worried, it was just the sort of bad timing that they seemed to be destined for. The hormone charts were all over the place, and her oestrogen level was through the roof.

"Ok, so what is this going to mean?" He was confused. " She can't physically jump anyone while she is in a coma." Obviously Angel thought it was significant, he just wanted to be sure what they were going to be dealing with.

"Firstly, it isn't her I am worried about. There is a reason I have confined all male personnel to the other buildings. Even the guards on Hope have been changed to a female contingent. " Alec was surprised, he hadn't noticed, or had he? He knew he was feeling very possessive of Max, he had just put it down to concern, and he hadn't felt the need to defend her from male challengers. That would have been a problem, males fighting to guard the comatose woman.

"Secondly, her fluctuating hormone levels will make it hard to maintain her in the state she is currently in." Alec looked alarmed, he knew exactly what it was like to suffer through this. What Mia had managed to do with Max had given them time. Time that was rapidly running out. Angel confirmed it for him ."There is a high chance that as her heat takes hold she will end up with dreams. We can't slow down her deterioration, in fact this may speed up as her metabolism rate rises."

Alec was out of his seat and at the door before Angel could get him to stop and think, his instincts had kicked in and were going to make this all a little bit harder. "X5-494. Halt". She had been reduced to basic training to get through to him. Angel knew things were desperate enough without Alec charging off on some pheromone induced quest. They needed to keep a clear head. That meant keeping him away from Max, which in his current frame of mind wasn't going to be easy. She needed to get him to focus if they were going to have any chance to get the psyops kid to cooperate. Angel had heard how badly it had gone. The guards had been debriefed when they had been replaced.

Alec turned in time to see the tranquilliser in Angel's hand. His brain was too slow to realise what it meant. As he slumped to the ground, his eyes watched Angel moved to stand over him, before they drowsily closed. Angel signalled for the two females that had been outside waiting to come and collect him.

Fightening off the feelings of despair she set off towards Hope's room. She mightn't be able to do any good but she couldn't just sit round watching.

Hope knew someone was coming. It wasn't him. In fact, she couldn't sense him at all. Standing up ready to confront the intruder she was surprised to see the woman. A woman she knew from her old life. A memory from behind the walls.

"Are you happy to see me?"

The look on Angel's face was of stunned shock as she realised exactly who the little girl was.