Really sorry it took so long. I couldn't seem to write something I liked
and I kept deleting and starting again. Plus life's been kinda hectic. :/
Chapter Five
Caught up in her thoughts Max barely spoke a word that wasn't a question on the heist, a command or an all clear sign. Alec stayed quiet, not wanting to snap her out of the delicate peace of mind she seemed to be in. Something big was zipping round in that head of hers he was sure, but what that happened to be, was beyond him.
He didn't know whether to be worried or glad at the complete personality switch, not that he was complaining. She seemed to have dropped the bitch act and was acting playfully and relatively laid-back and he couldn't figure out what had brought on the change.
Even though it turned him on seeing her angry, seeing her happy made him . . . well, happy. Oh this sounds like a sappy, trashy romance novel.
The transition had been so quick that he couldn't really think of what could have caused it. Sure this trip was probably helping, not having to worry about any other transgenic in peril, or White or even Logan.
As much as he wanted to he couldn't give all of the credit of her mood change to her half assed dumping pf the other man. Alec was no fool, he knew she'd been in love with him, probably still was, just the way he'd always love Rachel. No one gets over love at the click of one's fingers; especially first time love. Something else was going on in that mischievous, masochistic and sadistic head of hers.
"Hey Max?" Alec whispered as he searched through the manager's desk. She was behind him ear to the safe they'd found hidden behind the oh-so- original painting.
"You'd think people would hide all their money somewhere else. This is SO overdone and completely obvious," she whispered back as the telltale clinks of the mechanism announced the airtight door's opening, "Anyway, you were saying?"
"This guy not only has a wife and three kids at home which two he's probably already put through college and the third is on it's way, but he's got two girlfriends too. And I mean it's so obvious that they're in it for the money, have you seen this guy's face?" he continued, holding up a picture frame. Max's nose scrunched up and she pulled a face at the photo while absentmindedly emptying the safe.
"He looks like a bulldog is trying to swallow an apple with its ass," he shuddered putting the picture face down on the desk. And there it was, the smile. Grinning at his antics she shoved the last hundred-dollar bill stack into their bag and shrugged, "He's getting what he deserves then. Although maybe he was saving up for reconstruction surgery."
******
"One-hundred-and-twenty-nine-thousand-seven-hundred-dollars. One-hundred- and twenty-nine-thousand-eight-hundred-dollars. One hundred and twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred dollars," Alec counted back in the motel room.
"Count in your head pretty boy, you're giving me a migraine," Max muttered leafing through map printouts and typing away on the laptop.
"Counting it out loud makes me sound so much more rich though. One-hundred- and-thirty-thousand-dollars. Plus the eighty grand we already have brings us to a grand total of . . ." interrupting him before he could finish his sentence Max mused, "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."
"Well if you gave me enough time to finish talking I would have said it right away. Two-hundred-and-ten-thousand-dollars. Not bad for two night's work," he said his face nodding impressed. Dropping the bag onto the floor beside the bed and shrugging out of his shirt leaving him in sweat pants Alec threw his weight backwards till he lay on his side propped up on his elbow. The bed bounced with his movement but Max didn't budge from what she was immersed in.
A grinning smile was on his lips and in the cutest, adorable little boy voice he could pull off he asked, "Watcha up to?"
"Forging records. Do something productive instead of looking at me," she answered not shifting her gaze, "I AM doing something productive," he argued in the same voice, "I'm thinking."
"Does it hurt?" Alec's sarcastic laugh made her grin but to his complete enthusiasm she shut the laptop off and put everything she'd been doing away. Watching in curiosity he rolled onto his stomach, his head resting on his arms in front on him, and his sock clad feet swinging in mid air back and forth.
Languidly stretching every single muscle in her body, Max yawned and bent down to touch her toes, her cat like agility and flexibility allowing her to touch the ground with her elbows before she rose again and flicked her hair behind her. Alec's eyes followed all of this with great interest.
Flopping down next to him in the same position he lay in she gave him her most innocent smile. With intrigued and yet weary eyes he studied her expression carefully, "What?"
Her face scrunched up in confusion but the impish spark remained in her chocolate brown irises, "What, what?" straining a laugh he sat up and shook his finger, "Oh no don't you play dumb with me. You've got that face," he told her his eyes keeping track of all her movements.
"What face? Alec I have no idea what you're talking about," she said rolling her eyes at him but a little smile grew and pulled at the corners of her lips.
Still unsure of her intentions he laid back down, "The face that says I've done something or I'm about to do something and Alec is gonna get the short end of the stick," he explained.
"Well fine be like that. I guess I'm wasting my efforts with you. I'm gonna find someone else who is more than willing to have my attention lavished upon them. The motel manager's son looked pretty interested," she said shrugging and went to crawl off the bed.
Two strong hands gripped her ankles and the unexpected yank tore her arms out from under her so she laid flat. Pulling again before she had a chance to move he slid her back and straddled her legs, holding her hands pinned to the bed with his. Face down on the duvet, to say Max was not impressed at her current state was an understatement. But not one of those small understatements; it was more like saying, 'Yeah sure the Titanic encountered an ice cube and it lightly scratched its new coat of paint.'
"Alec?" she ground out, her voice muffled since her face was pressed against the bed.
"Yes my sweet?" he answered cheekily, "Get your raggedy white ass off me. I want to get up."
"It is NOT raggedy. And most certainly it ain't white. It's just as golden as the rest of me," he shot back but her comment still made him turn to look at his behind. With not as much weight on her hands she pushed with all her force.
Alec felt the tell tale rush of strength too late. Max's legs crossed and spun, spinning her body over so that they both flipped and she was on top of him chest to chest and pinning his hands onto the mattress, "I may have missed out on a decade of training but ONE I stayed up in my training for that decade. I never got out of the game. TWO my recent stay taught me a few things even if I just observed. I learn quickly."
"Well can ya blame a guy for trying? Who wouldn't want a writhing Max beneath them screaming at them to get off," his cursed tongue moved too fast and before he knew it the words had spilled out and he was looking into shocked brown eyes.
He watched in bewilderment as a soft smile graced her face and she laughed rolling off of him, "You are such a goofball sometimes. Sketchy was right if a man isn't thinking about work, work, work. All they think about is sex, sex, and sex. Another man on a mission."
Ok that was definitely not what I'd expected. Seems to be starting a trend.
"Was this how you were before?" his question caught her completely off guard and she halted and turned looking back at him, still sprawled on the bed. A curious sincerity was in his eyes and she couldn't help but feel drawn from it.
Shrugging a little awkwardly she sat down but remained on the edge one knee up on the mattress, "What do ya mean?" resting her head down on her hands resting on her knee; the movement making the top she wore ride up revealing the golden skin of her back.
"Before everything started happening. OC said that you changed a lot this past year, that you were different when you came back from Manticore," he explained in soft-spoken tones. He was treading lightly; he didn't want her to bolt; metaphorically that was.
"She did?" her voice was softer more vulnerable but a smile came onto her lips, one of those impish ones he loved about her.
A resigned sigh left her lips and she crawled over to the head of the bed and for a second Alec thought she wasn't gonna say anything until she patted the spot beside her, "It's a bit of a long story and a girl's got to be comfy."
Maybe he'd moved a bit too eagerly till he sat next to her propped up on the pillows, her laugh may have been an indication of that, but he didn't care, Max was gonna open up. At least a little, and chances like this were hard to come by.
"I hooked up with Cindy when I first came to Seattle and joined 'Team JamPony'," she said, the last part in a mock proud voice, "Going on 5 years now. That's when things really changed for me; I'd found a friend, a true friend. And even though she didn't have the 411 on me she accepted every aspect of me that she knew."
"Normal's known you since you were 16?" Alec asked in surprise his eyes widening, "Yeah roughly. Nearly 17 since I'm 21 now going on 22."
Chuckling at his contemplative face she nudged him, "Yeah he saw me through the worst of my teenage years. Still holds that against me. But anyways. That's how I met Sketchy and Sky and Herbal. You never met him. He was the most confusing yet helpful Rastafarian you'd ever meet, completely lovable."
He smiled at her description and watched her burrow further down and closer to him, "It was just me and the crew you know? I didn't have to worry about Lydecker and Manticore. All that mattered was chilling and winning sculling contests, watching Sketchy show off on his bike to some girl and then laugh when he miserably failed," her smile radiated and she chuckled again.
"Things were as normal as they'd ever been. I shared my apartment with Kendra; she was cool, as OC would say, a complete down ass female. I went to work, chilled at Crash . . . cat burgled . . . and rode my baby. Any other time I spent looking for my sibs. I was more like you, a hell lot more like you. Always looking out for number one but always there for my friends. Don't get me wrong I was still a bitch," her words erupted him into laughter and she smiled feeling the rumble in his chest.
Somehow she'd ended up with her head on his torso and his arm around her while the other held on of her hands, "Then I met Logan."
"You know you never told me the specifics of HOW you met him," Alec mused and smiling she rolled her eyes, "Alright I'll bite. I was ripping off his apartment. I caught him doing a cable hack and he caught the tail end of astounding acrobatics on my part involving me taking a header out of his window like rocky the flying squirrel. And those are his words," she shrugged the grin not leaving her lips.
"He tracked me down, lured me back to his apartment and once discovered who and what I was the flattery stopped and he got right down to business. He offered me quid pro quo. I became his personal kitty cat and he helped me track down the others," laughing at her words he prodded, "And what did you say?"
"Basically I said he could shove it and walked out. He got himself shot in the spine trying to protect one of his contacts and when the goon came back to finish the job I was there so I figured I'd save his life. I got caught up into getting the contact's kidnapped daughter back and not to brag but I kicked ass. I saw him again when I showed up 3 months later and he was in the wheelchair. Things sorta started from there," she finished shrugging it off.
"But that wouldn't radically change you. Come on there's lots you're not telling me," he whined at her.
"That's a bedtime story for another night. Right now I'm very comfy and I wanna catch an hour's sleep. Goodnight pretty boy," she muttered closing here eyes and drifting very quickly off into sleep.
"Goodnight Max," he whispered to the deaf walls of the room.
*******
Lemme know what ya think and review. It's very motivating.
Chapter Five
Caught up in her thoughts Max barely spoke a word that wasn't a question on the heist, a command or an all clear sign. Alec stayed quiet, not wanting to snap her out of the delicate peace of mind she seemed to be in. Something big was zipping round in that head of hers he was sure, but what that happened to be, was beyond him.
He didn't know whether to be worried or glad at the complete personality switch, not that he was complaining. She seemed to have dropped the bitch act and was acting playfully and relatively laid-back and he couldn't figure out what had brought on the change.
Even though it turned him on seeing her angry, seeing her happy made him . . . well, happy. Oh this sounds like a sappy, trashy romance novel.
The transition had been so quick that he couldn't really think of what could have caused it. Sure this trip was probably helping, not having to worry about any other transgenic in peril, or White or even Logan.
As much as he wanted to he couldn't give all of the credit of her mood change to her half assed dumping pf the other man. Alec was no fool, he knew she'd been in love with him, probably still was, just the way he'd always love Rachel. No one gets over love at the click of one's fingers; especially first time love. Something else was going on in that mischievous, masochistic and sadistic head of hers.
"Hey Max?" Alec whispered as he searched through the manager's desk. She was behind him ear to the safe they'd found hidden behind the oh-so- original painting.
"You'd think people would hide all their money somewhere else. This is SO overdone and completely obvious," she whispered back as the telltale clinks of the mechanism announced the airtight door's opening, "Anyway, you were saying?"
"This guy not only has a wife and three kids at home which two he's probably already put through college and the third is on it's way, but he's got two girlfriends too. And I mean it's so obvious that they're in it for the money, have you seen this guy's face?" he continued, holding up a picture frame. Max's nose scrunched up and she pulled a face at the photo while absentmindedly emptying the safe.
"He looks like a bulldog is trying to swallow an apple with its ass," he shuddered putting the picture face down on the desk. And there it was, the smile. Grinning at his antics she shoved the last hundred-dollar bill stack into their bag and shrugged, "He's getting what he deserves then. Although maybe he was saving up for reconstruction surgery."
******
"One-hundred-and-twenty-nine-thousand-seven-hundred-dollars. One-hundred- and twenty-nine-thousand-eight-hundred-dollars. One hundred and twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred dollars," Alec counted back in the motel room.
"Count in your head pretty boy, you're giving me a migraine," Max muttered leafing through map printouts and typing away on the laptop.
"Counting it out loud makes me sound so much more rich though. One-hundred- and-thirty-thousand-dollars. Plus the eighty grand we already have brings us to a grand total of . . ." interrupting him before he could finish his sentence Max mused, "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."
"Well if you gave me enough time to finish talking I would have said it right away. Two-hundred-and-ten-thousand-dollars. Not bad for two night's work," he said his face nodding impressed. Dropping the bag onto the floor beside the bed and shrugging out of his shirt leaving him in sweat pants Alec threw his weight backwards till he lay on his side propped up on his elbow. The bed bounced with his movement but Max didn't budge from what she was immersed in.
A grinning smile was on his lips and in the cutest, adorable little boy voice he could pull off he asked, "Watcha up to?"
"Forging records. Do something productive instead of looking at me," she answered not shifting her gaze, "I AM doing something productive," he argued in the same voice, "I'm thinking."
"Does it hurt?" Alec's sarcastic laugh made her grin but to his complete enthusiasm she shut the laptop off and put everything she'd been doing away. Watching in curiosity he rolled onto his stomach, his head resting on his arms in front on him, and his sock clad feet swinging in mid air back and forth.
Languidly stretching every single muscle in her body, Max yawned and bent down to touch her toes, her cat like agility and flexibility allowing her to touch the ground with her elbows before she rose again and flicked her hair behind her. Alec's eyes followed all of this with great interest.
Flopping down next to him in the same position he lay in she gave him her most innocent smile. With intrigued and yet weary eyes he studied her expression carefully, "What?"
Her face scrunched up in confusion but the impish spark remained in her chocolate brown irises, "What, what?" straining a laugh he sat up and shook his finger, "Oh no don't you play dumb with me. You've got that face," he told her his eyes keeping track of all her movements.
"What face? Alec I have no idea what you're talking about," she said rolling her eyes at him but a little smile grew and pulled at the corners of her lips.
Still unsure of her intentions he laid back down, "The face that says I've done something or I'm about to do something and Alec is gonna get the short end of the stick," he explained.
"Well fine be like that. I guess I'm wasting my efforts with you. I'm gonna find someone else who is more than willing to have my attention lavished upon them. The motel manager's son looked pretty interested," she said shrugging and went to crawl off the bed.
Two strong hands gripped her ankles and the unexpected yank tore her arms out from under her so she laid flat. Pulling again before she had a chance to move he slid her back and straddled her legs, holding her hands pinned to the bed with his. Face down on the duvet, to say Max was not impressed at her current state was an understatement. But not one of those small understatements; it was more like saying, 'Yeah sure the Titanic encountered an ice cube and it lightly scratched its new coat of paint.'
"Alec?" she ground out, her voice muffled since her face was pressed against the bed.
"Yes my sweet?" he answered cheekily, "Get your raggedy white ass off me. I want to get up."
"It is NOT raggedy. And most certainly it ain't white. It's just as golden as the rest of me," he shot back but her comment still made him turn to look at his behind. With not as much weight on her hands she pushed with all her force.
Alec felt the tell tale rush of strength too late. Max's legs crossed and spun, spinning her body over so that they both flipped and she was on top of him chest to chest and pinning his hands onto the mattress, "I may have missed out on a decade of training but ONE I stayed up in my training for that decade. I never got out of the game. TWO my recent stay taught me a few things even if I just observed. I learn quickly."
"Well can ya blame a guy for trying? Who wouldn't want a writhing Max beneath them screaming at them to get off," his cursed tongue moved too fast and before he knew it the words had spilled out and he was looking into shocked brown eyes.
He watched in bewilderment as a soft smile graced her face and she laughed rolling off of him, "You are such a goofball sometimes. Sketchy was right if a man isn't thinking about work, work, work. All they think about is sex, sex, and sex. Another man on a mission."
Ok that was definitely not what I'd expected. Seems to be starting a trend.
"Was this how you were before?" his question caught her completely off guard and she halted and turned looking back at him, still sprawled on the bed. A curious sincerity was in his eyes and she couldn't help but feel drawn from it.
Shrugging a little awkwardly she sat down but remained on the edge one knee up on the mattress, "What do ya mean?" resting her head down on her hands resting on her knee; the movement making the top she wore ride up revealing the golden skin of her back.
"Before everything started happening. OC said that you changed a lot this past year, that you were different when you came back from Manticore," he explained in soft-spoken tones. He was treading lightly; he didn't want her to bolt; metaphorically that was.
"She did?" her voice was softer more vulnerable but a smile came onto her lips, one of those impish ones he loved about her.
A resigned sigh left her lips and she crawled over to the head of the bed and for a second Alec thought she wasn't gonna say anything until she patted the spot beside her, "It's a bit of a long story and a girl's got to be comfy."
Maybe he'd moved a bit too eagerly till he sat next to her propped up on the pillows, her laugh may have been an indication of that, but he didn't care, Max was gonna open up. At least a little, and chances like this were hard to come by.
"I hooked up with Cindy when I first came to Seattle and joined 'Team JamPony'," she said, the last part in a mock proud voice, "Going on 5 years now. That's when things really changed for me; I'd found a friend, a true friend. And even though she didn't have the 411 on me she accepted every aspect of me that she knew."
"Normal's known you since you were 16?" Alec asked in surprise his eyes widening, "Yeah roughly. Nearly 17 since I'm 21 now going on 22."
Chuckling at his contemplative face she nudged him, "Yeah he saw me through the worst of my teenage years. Still holds that against me. But anyways. That's how I met Sketchy and Sky and Herbal. You never met him. He was the most confusing yet helpful Rastafarian you'd ever meet, completely lovable."
He smiled at her description and watched her burrow further down and closer to him, "It was just me and the crew you know? I didn't have to worry about Lydecker and Manticore. All that mattered was chilling and winning sculling contests, watching Sketchy show off on his bike to some girl and then laugh when he miserably failed," her smile radiated and she chuckled again.
"Things were as normal as they'd ever been. I shared my apartment with Kendra; she was cool, as OC would say, a complete down ass female. I went to work, chilled at Crash . . . cat burgled . . . and rode my baby. Any other time I spent looking for my sibs. I was more like you, a hell lot more like you. Always looking out for number one but always there for my friends. Don't get me wrong I was still a bitch," her words erupted him into laughter and she smiled feeling the rumble in his chest.
Somehow she'd ended up with her head on his torso and his arm around her while the other held on of her hands, "Then I met Logan."
"You know you never told me the specifics of HOW you met him," Alec mused and smiling she rolled her eyes, "Alright I'll bite. I was ripping off his apartment. I caught him doing a cable hack and he caught the tail end of astounding acrobatics on my part involving me taking a header out of his window like rocky the flying squirrel. And those are his words," she shrugged the grin not leaving her lips.
"He tracked me down, lured me back to his apartment and once discovered who and what I was the flattery stopped and he got right down to business. He offered me quid pro quo. I became his personal kitty cat and he helped me track down the others," laughing at her words he prodded, "And what did you say?"
"Basically I said he could shove it and walked out. He got himself shot in the spine trying to protect one of his contacts and when the goon came back to finish the job I was there so I figured I'd save his life. I got caught up into getting the contact's kidnapped daughter back and not to brag but I kicked ass. I saw him again when I showed up 3 months later and he was in the wheelchair. Things sorta started from there," she finished shrugging it off.
"But that wouldn't radically change you. Come on there's lots you're not telling me," he whined at her.
"That's a bedtime story for another night. Right now I'm very comfy and I wanna catch an hour's sleep. Goodnight pretty boy," she muttered closing here eyes and drifting very quickly off into sleep.
"Goodnight Max," he whispered to the deaf walls of the room.
*******
Lemme know what ya think and review. It's very motivating.