When Max just blankly stared at him for more then a minute, Alec made a little nodding gesture, swallowed the lump in his own throat, and sighed, "Yeah, your mother, my mother, all of them are there."
Max was sure that she hadn't really believed it until right that moment, that she was afraid to believe it and then wake up and hear Logan telling her she had fallen asleep on his couch. "It's just… wow," actually it was a lot more then that, but Max couldn't even begin to find the words… she'd been searching for this for a long time.
Alec nodded again, knowing that he would remember this moment for years to come, he hadn't quite dared to believe himself either, one of the reasons he had called Max over first thing. "I guess… I mean, everyone Manticore had 'problems' with, they shipped them out to the same institutions, and then moved them about a couple times… that is, apparently, Maria and Emily, my mother, they're both at… and I thought…" Alec couldn't quite believe he was struggling so hard with the right words, "Hell. Let's take a week off and go get them, prove that Manticore's the ones who are crazy." Alec wasn't sure what had hit him until he realized that Max was hugging him, holding him so tight he figured a human would have broken bones by now.
In a few years, Max was sure she would have some perfectly valid, and not crazy-sounding, reason for why she at that moment never wanted to let go of Alec. Though, for right now, she was satisfied with the explanation that he had just made it all so easy. Something so hard and scary, and he had just assumed they would get through it together, go together. He had given her a stupid piece of paper that would change her life, was her life, and it was just…simple. Of course, Max was sure that her reason in a few years would also be more articulate. "God, oh god, Alec…"
Alec held Max just about as tightly as she was holding him, and stroked her hair with one hand, the hand that had dropped his piece of paper. He remembered finding out, as a little kid, about his brother, his twin brother that he had never seen. Alec hadn't thought it had affected him beyond the time in Psi-Ops it cost him, but when he had gotten out into the real world and talked about Ben with someone who had known him, it had been so solid and unbelievable. Manticore had always said that they all were family, but real family, flesh and blood family instead of transgenic family was something he missed now. But he didn't like depressing thoughts, didn't want to let the moment stretch, knowing too well the memories it would plunge both transgenics into. "Hey, now Maxie, if you don't cry, I'll give you a pocket full of sunshine."
Max pulled back from Alec, wiping at her nose self-consciously, she hadn't really realized that she had been crying. "When do you want to leave?" Her voice had regained some confidence, and she was thankful to Alec for stopping possible memories before they could appear.
Alec grinned, his manor and gestures back to what they normally were confident like usual. For example, he wasn't acting like someone who had just held Max and reminisced about his childhood and their shared joy over finding their parents. "Now," yeah, he was definitely the same-old Alec again.