Fifteen minutes after speaking to OC on the phone, Alec was rushing down the hallway of Harbor Lights Hospital carrying Max's limp body. He held her close, the arm beneath her legs gripping her thighs, the other wrapped around her back holding her head to his chest. The unnatural heat of her was practically scorching him through his clothes and hers. Icy panic at the back of his mind was being suppressed with the iron fist of his will. He barged into the emergency ward and placed Max in the first empty bed he came across.
A man sporting a crew cut, too many muscles, and a no-nonsense expression hurried over to them from the nurses' station. "You can't just," he indicated Alec and Max with a vague flick of his wrist, "do this. We have procedures, young man."
Alec didn't even glance up at the nurse, all his attention focused on straightening Max out on the bed. "I need five times the normal dose of the strongest tranq you have on hand, wrist and ankle restraints – leather will do, metal'd be better – and page Dr. Shankar."
"You have to –"
Feeling Max begin to tremble beneath his hands, Alec turned the full intensity of his gaze upon the man and roared, "Now!" The nurse took one glimpse of the predator rising behind those hazel eyes and fled.
By the time the scared man returned with Dr. Shankar and a couple of security officers in tow, Alec had managed to tear a bed sheet and secure Max's wrists to the railings on either side of the bed. Spread upon the narrow mattress, beneath the harsh glare of fluorescent lights, she appeared incredibly fragile and battered. Her skin was pale with greenish shadows amidst the black and blue bruises. All over her body there were smears of blood: hers, his, and Logan's. Cuts and abrasions marred the perfection of her features, though Alec knew the damage had looked much worse just a half hour earlier. He watched her lying there so vulnerable as she trembled with the seizure and it felt like a hard punch to his gut.
Shankar took in the sight and couldn't believe her eyes. "Alec, what --?"
"She got some bad meds for that condition that she has. She's running a high fever and she was seizing violently on the way here. Then she was unresponsive for about ten minutes until she started shaking again." He indicated his makeshift restraints, explaining, "Plus, she isn't herself when she's awake."
As soon as Shankar knew as much of the score as Alec was willing to share she became a flurry of action. She new better than to ask about the cuts and bruises if he wasn't volunteering the information. At her commands, nurses and interns rushed over and moved with a purpose. Alec stepped back a few paces to let them do their jobs, but he did not leave the room and he made sure he could see Max's face at all times. In a matter of moments, Shankar's medical team had Max hooked up to a number of monitors, had stuck her veins with tubes attached to hanging bags of liquid, and had placed an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose. The torn fabric anchoring her wrists to the bed had been replaced with proper leather cuffs for her wrists as well as her ankles.
Alec pulled his eyes away from her face for just a moment to scan their immediate surroundings. He knew he shouldn't have drawn attention to them. After all, it wasn't that long ago that this hospital had been crawling with members of the CDC and White's cronies, all looking for a piece of Max. But he hadn't really had a choice. Harbor Lights was the hospital closest to Logan's and he knew that Dr. Shankar regularly worked shifts there. At least the security guards had left once they saw that Shankar knew him.
He turned his attention back to the activity surrounding Max. One of the nurses broke away from the group. She was a short Asian woman with a matronly figure clothed in hospital scrubs. She carried a clipboard and approached Alec with a purpose.
"What is the patient's name?"
Alec couldn't take the chance that Shankar might forget the alias he'd make up and say Max's name, so he answered in a half-truth. "Maxine McDowell."
"Are you a relative?"
"Yes," Alec answered without hesitation, "I'm her husband. I didn't grab her sector pass, but I have mine." He reached into his jacket pulled out his identification. She wrote his information down on the beginnings of Max's medical chart. Better that anyone who might come looking for Max found him instead. The nurse finished just as Shankar asked one of the interns to hand her two empty vials. Alec was immediately beside the doctor with an iron grip on one of her wrists.
"I'll do the blood work myself," Shankar assured him in a hushed tone, though she didn't try to pull herself from him. Alec briefly considered threatening her with serious injury should anyone find out that her patient wasn't human and instead was the most perfect woman ever created in a lab. But, when he looked into her eyes and took in her earnest expression, he realized that she knew just how very much was at stake, and, more importantly, she cared. He nodded and released her, then stood silently aside and watched her push another needle into Max's vein.
After a while, whatever drug they'd injected into Max's IV seemed to kick in and stop her body's shaking. She lay still upon the bed and most of Shankar's assistants began to move away to deal with other crises in the ER.
"Doc, we can't stay out in the open like this," Alec said. He was glancing all around, searching for viable egress routes.
The pretty, petite doctor studied his face. She had just seen him not even a week ago when Max had insisted that he come in so they could be sure he was completely back to normal after his drug-induced regression. To her eyes, he now looked much worse for wear. He seemed just as battered as Max, though admittedly he wasn't stricken with her paleness and he didn't look at all vulnerable. But the worry that shadowed his face every time he looked at Max and the tense set of every muscle in his body was not to be ignored.
Shankar could see bloodstains on the collar of his shirt where it peeked out from beneath his leather jacket. There was a cut on the bruised skin of his eye, a painful looking scrape across one of his cheeks, and his lip was split and slightly swollen. Standing in the ER looking the way he did and yet giving off the vibes of a cornered predator, Alec was sure to draw attention to both himself and Max. Attention that would bring with it unwanted questions and a whole mess of trouble.
"No, of course not," she said to him. "I'll see about getting her moved to a room. In the meantime, I'd like to run some scans on her, definitely an MRI and a CT. There could be something going on within her that might not show up in basic labs."
"Do what you have to Doc. But, I go where she goes."
Shankar simply nodded and began wheeling Max out of the ER with Alec following closely behind them.
"You know you really should send a thank you note to whoever it was that designed the miniskirt you wore today. I mean, in that outfit you could've made many a tip at the Blowfish. And hey, you'd still be able to pursue your very favorite hobby, kicking ass!" Alec stopped speaking to rub his palm over his side. He grimaced slightly in pain as he did so. "As a matter of fact, I've still got the bruises to prove it." His moved his hand from his sore ribs to rest on the leather restraint that wrapped around Max's slender wrist.
He was sitting in the private room that Shankar had been able to secure for Max. There was even a bathroom, so he wouldn't need to leave Max alone for any reason. Aside from being on guard against the CDC or White or anything else that twisted fate might want to throw their way, Alec didn't want Max to wake up alone, chained to a hospital bed. That very scenario had happened to each and every Manticore alum at some time or another. The thought took Alec to some dark places, some dark memories. He refused to let it happen to Max, not now, not when they were free, not if he could help it.
His jacket was thrown across one of the armchairs in the room. He'd dragged another one to the side of the bed closet to the door, so he would be between Max and any possible threat. Ever since Shankar had set them up in the room, he'd been leaning in close, talking to Max. He was trying to goad her into waking up by yammering on about everything and nothing at all. Even if she were still feral when she awoke, he'd prefer it to the silent figure lying beside him.
She was so pale. So very pale, with dark circles marring the delicate skin beneath her eyes. Her hair lay spread upon the pillow. The dark waves framed her face, further heightening the unhealthy pallor of her cheeks and lips. He moved his fingers into that thick mass of waves, marveling at the contrast of each strand against his fingertips and silky softness of it all.
"Why don't you let your hair do this all the time? I think this look suits you better." He paused to think a moment. "I know you like to pretend you're stodgy and proper, like Logan. But you're not. Underneath the tough chick act, I think you're this free." He smiled softly when he thought back to the way her hair had moved around them as they fought. At one point he couldn't see passed the curtain of it. It had seemed as though the world had disappeared completely and left the two of them to their dance. "I can tell by the way you fight."
Alec smiled sadly and then tried to snap himself out of it. "Come on Max, wake up. This cat napping thing is just so obvious." He leaned closer and whispered, "Is this just your way of getting out of that pizza, beer, and ice cream that you owe me? Huh?" He chuckled, "You thought I'd forgotten about that, didn't you…"
A throat cleared behind him. He knew it was one of the nurses that walked the floor. He'd heard her as she approached on her rounds. The soft squeak on the linoleum of those white clogs they all wore was unmistakable to hearing as sharp as his. He didn't even bother looking up. He knew she was alone, and, knowing that the only person that would have anything useful to say was Shankar, he was hoping the woman would just let him be.
"Sir, visiting hours will be ending in five minutes. I'm afraid you're going to have leave her room." The woman's voice was not unfriendly, but it held the matter-of-fact note of someone doing her job who expected no argument. When Alec didn't respond or acknowledge her in any way she tried again, "You can wait in the lobby at the other end of the floor. We'll notify you of any change in her status."
"I'm fine here," his voice was quiet and cool. His back remained to her and the rest of the world.
"Sir, it's hospital policy." While she thought it was sweet that he wanted to stay beside his wife, there were still rules. He turned his head to look at her and she immediately took a step back. For a moment his eyes had seemed to reflect and glow like some sort of big jungle cat. Even when that trick of the light was over, there seemed to be something not quite human lurking behind his pretty hazel eyes.
"I said, we're fine." When he spoke, his voice came out in a deep rumble and there was a visible tick in the muscle of his jaw. The nurse felt her pulse speed up until it was hammering at the base of her throat. With every synapse in her brain telling her to escape, she hastily backed out of the room and pulled the door shut. She was so shaken that she ran right into Shankar in her hurry to leave his line of sight.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Doctor, uh, I just, uh…"
"It's fine. What's wrong?"
"The- the young man," she stammered, "he won't leave your patient's room. Should I get security?"
"No," Shankar said and put a hand on the other woman's arm, "there's no need for that. Thank you, Vivian. I'll take it from here."
"Yes, doctor." The nurse rushed away as soon as Shankar gave her an out.
The doctor chuckled to herself at the other woman's rapid departure and entered the room without another thought. She could tell that Alec was talking to Max. She could her the murmuring rumble of his voice, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. Closing the door behind her, she made her way to the foot of the bed. She removed the clipboard of charts that hung there and rifled through the pages.
Alec was no longer talking to Max. He simply sat there staring at the other transgenic, one hand resting lightly on her shoulder and the other one cradling her hand. The doctor checked Max's vitals and made a few notes in the chart.
She glanced up at Alec. They'd done scans and tests on Max for hours. He had been by her side for every second of it, while Max remained unconscious through it all. The man seemed haggard and worried and no little battered himself. He looked a far cry from the smiling charmer that had come to see her just last week.
Shankar broke the silence. "Have you noticed any change?"
"No, nothing yet."
"Alec," she tried to keep her voice neutral, "maybe you should go home and get cleaned up, get some rest."
"No," he said as she shook his head. "I'm not leaving her. I know what happened last time she was here." He visibly tightened his grip on Max's hand. "I'll go home when she walks out of here." He ended the discussion by changing the subject, "What can you tell me from the scans?"
"The lab results should be ready shortly. Once I have them I'll be able to better understand her MRI films. I'll be back with some answers soon, I hope. "
Alec nodded and turned his eyes back to Max, dismissing the doctor all together. Shankar replaced the charts on the hook and debated whether or not to say anything else. In the end, she couldn't remain silent.
"Logan was brought in not too long after you and Max arrived," she said, once again keeping her tone carefully neutral. "He'd been badly beaten. But, I suppose you already knew that." She watched Alec watching Max. "He's in stable condition on the 5th floor. There was a young woman who arrived with him. The police are questioning her right now." When he didn't respond, she simply sighed and turned to leave.
Her hand was on the doorknob when Alec finally spoke. His voice was quiet and he sounded as weary as he looked.
"Shankar." She turned around, and he met her eyes and held them. "Stay here with her? I don't want her to wake up alone." She nodded, though she wasn't entirely sure whether it had been a request or a command. Alec pulled away from Max's side, squeezing her hand lightly before he released it. "I'll be back in ten," he said as he walked past Shankar and left the room.
On the fifth floor of the hospital, a couple of uniformed policeman chatted with a nurse just outside the room where Logan lay. Original Cindy stood at one end of the hall rather animatedly expressing herself to a young, East Asian policeman in plainclothes. Alec took the opportunity to listen in on their conversation as he approached from the other end of the hall.
"Look miss, could we just start –"
"And my name ain't 'miss', it's Original Cindy, ya heard!"
The policeman gave a long-suffering sigh before he continued. "Look Original Cindy, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just that some of the things you've told me about how you found Logan Cale just don't add up."
"Well Detective Sung, you sure 'nuff did offend. It sounds to me like you callin' Original Cindy a liar." She rolled her eyes and put one hand on her hip. "Just another po-po hasslin' a sistah." She noticed Alec walking down the hall towards her and gave him a subtle wink.
At the mention of the detective's name, a proverbial light bulb flickered on in Alec's head. Odds were that this was Detective Matt Sung, the very man who was constantly helping Logan and Max out on Eyes Only jobs. Alec was just passing Logan's room at that point. He surreptitiously glanced through the room's large window.
Logan slept on a hospital bed surrounded by monitors and various bags of fluid. His arm was in a cast and there were multiple bandages on his neck and face, including a particularly large one across his forehead. Alec surmised that he must've needed stitches to that gash on his head. He shrugged imperceptibly to himself. Ordinaries sure were fragile.
"Detective Sung," Alec said when he was just a few paces away from the debating duo. "I think I can help you in this investigation." He lowered his voice and locked eyes with the other man. "After all, you and I share some mutual friends. Logan, Max, Eyes Only…"
Sung started and just stared at Alec for a moment before taking him by the elbow and leading him a little farther down the hall. When he finally spoke it was in an urgent whisper, "Are you saying that what happened to Logan has to do with an Eyes Only mission?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. In fact, my real point is that if you push this before Logan can wake up and smooth a few things over, you'll be putting his life and Max's in serious danger from some very bad guys that could do them some very serious harm." Alec kept his explanation as vague as possible and hoped that the detective wouldn't ask any probing questions.
Sung nodded to himself as much as to Alec. "I see what you're saying." He sighed and said, "I owe both Logan and Max for saving my ass on more than one occasion. I'll trust that they know what they've gotten into." He reached into the breast pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a card. "Please, call me if they need anything, Mister…"
Alec took the card with one hand and offered his other to the detective. "It's Alec. And I will." Sung shook his hand, nodded once to Alec and then to OC, and left the hospital with his backup in tow.
Sighing in relief, OC put an arm around Alec's waist and leaned into him a little. He barely rested his hand on her shoulder. "How's my boo?"
"Still unconscious. We're waiting for the test results. She's no worse, at least." His eyes fell on Eyes Only. "Logan?" OC glanced up at Alec. She watched as the muscle in his jaw ticked and had some idea of what it cost him to ask after the other man.
"Docs been sayin' he's just sleepin' it off. He should be fine by morning, given the givens. Maybe the headache he'll have'll humble him a bit. Original Cindy knows he needs it." She gave Alec a small squeeze. "And how is my baby boo?"
"Oh you know me, OC. I'm always alright." He gave her his trademark smirk and planted a light kiss on the top of her head, before releasing her. "Thanks for asking, though." He started down the hall. It had been almost ten minutes and he needed to get back to Max.
"Anytime, baby boo," she whispered at his back. "Anytime." Alec was halfway to the elevator banks, but he heard her words and the concern behind them as loud as if she'd been standing right at his side.
When he got back to Max's room, Shankar didn't say a word to him. She simply gave him a small smile and a nod before she left. He immediately sat back down next to his friend. Alec brushed his fingertips over her cheek, needing to let her know he was there.
"Miss me, Maxie? Yeah, I know. How could you not?"
It was so strange how right it felt to touch her. For the past week, ever since that morning on top of the Space Needle, they'd been getting closer and closer. Alec wasn't exactly sure what had happened to change things, but that could be because thanks to some drug White shot him with he had a few too many holes in his memory where a whole day should be. Well, whatever happened that day to change how Max treated him, it was a gift horse that he certainly wasn't going to look in the mouth.
The important thing was that the change was one he'd definitely noticed and definitely felt, usually in the form of Max's fist or the back of her hand. That was how she'd always touched him, but it was much more frequent now. It seemed as though she couldn't spend more than fifteen minutes around him without hitting him at least once. Plus, there'd been more than a few times when Alec had ventured to put his arm around her shoulders and, while she always ended up shoving him away eventually, more often than not there was laughter in her eyes as she did so. They still enjoyed their arguments, and he loved nothing more than getting under her skin, but everything between them seemed so much warmer now.
"Did I tell you I got me a sweet ride today? It's quite the classic." He shrugged, "Could do with a little tweaking though. Maybe when you wake up, you'll show me a few gearhead tricks." He stopped speaking for a while. He just sat there, staring at her pale, sleeping face, and not noticing the passage of time.
He chuckled and made a face. "Of course I'm sure the first thing you'll tell me is that it will never be a match for your baby. I'll admit you're right," he paused to smirk at her, "but, only because I've had the pleasure of riding it."
He ran his fingers over the soft skin of her palm, noticing the Familiar's brand was fading practically before his eyes. That mark had been made almost a month ago, but it had been the most resilient wound he'd ever seen affect one of their kind. Now, its disappearance seemed to be accelerating all of a sudden. He studied the mark closely for a moment, wondering if the snake poison was somehow making the effects of the cure even harder on her system.
A mild tremor that ran from Max's head to her heels was all the warning he had before her entire body jackknifed from the violent force of a seizure. Alec was practically thrown aside when it caught him off guard.
"No, no, no, Maxie."
He slammed his hand onto the red call button used to contact the nurses station. The heart monitor beeped wildly to mirror the frantic hammering that Alec could hear within Max's chest. Static crackled from the speaker through which the nurses' station communicated. Before anyone on the other end could ask what the problem was, Alec spoke.
"She's having another seizure. Get Shankar." Suddenly, Max's eyelids flicked up and Alec found himself looking into the two largest feline eyes he'd ever seen. "Max?" Alec's voice was a shocked whisper that he didn't even hear. She gasped once before a sound that was half yowl half scream burst from her throat. The seizure threw her head back on the pillow and bowed her back as much as the wrist and ankle restraints would allow.
As quickly as it began, the seizure was over. Max's body lay still upon the hospital bed. Her eyes were once again closed. The monitor gave the piercing wail of a heart stopped.
Alec jumped onto the bed, straddling Max with his knees. He began chest compressions, pressing down on her chest hard enough to crack the breastplate of an ordinary. He yelled as he pounded on her body, "Come on, you can't do this!" Two nurses came running in. Alec's head whipped around toward them. "Get a goddamn doctor in here!"
One of the nurses turned and left the room, while the other kept on toward the bed. She grabbed an oxygen bag from the cabinet above the bed and immediately began respirations on Max to match Alec's continual chest compressions.
A full minute later Shankar came running in, pushing a crash cart ahead of her. The second nurse as well as a third followed on her heels.
"Give her 2amps of epi and charge the D-fib to 30," Shankar ordered. One nurse grabbed a vial and a syringe out of a drawer in the cart while the other started flipping switches on the defibrillator.
"Charging."
The nurse with the syringe depressed the liquid into Max's IV. "Two amps epi!" A high-pitched whine that indicated the current was had reached 30 volts sounded over the wail of the heart monitor.
"Move Alec!" At Shankar's command, he leapt down to the opposite side of the bed so that she could reach Max. She grabbed a pair of rectangular paddles from the crash cart. "Clear!" The first nurse pulled the oxygen bag away from Max's face just as Shankar pressed the paddles to the transgenic's chest. As the first charge of electricity jolted through her, Max's body was lifted from the bed again.
The wail was interrupted with one quick beep as the current passed through the transgenic's heart, but sounded once again as she continued to flatline.
"Charge to 50."
"Charging."
"Clear!"
Again and again the doctor blasted electricity through Max's system, lifting her body from the bed. Again and again her brother's heart refused to pump.
"Damn it, Max," muttered Shankar through clenched teeth.
Alec suddenly realized that the problem was. They were transgenics. Every part, every bone, every muscle in their bodies was built tough. "It's not high enough!"
"Alec, she can't take –"
"Don't argue with me, she can. Now up the fucking current!"
Shankar hesitated for a fraction of a second then turned to her nurse. "Charge to 300." The young woman looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. "Now damn it!" The nurse turned the dial all the way up and then stepped back as if to distance herself from the madness.
"Clear!"
There was silence for a second, and that second seemed to go on forever in Alec's mind. Then a steady beep-beep-beep began as Max's heart finally picked up its rhythm. Shankar hung her head for a moment and breathed a sign of absolute relief. As they reset the crash cart, the nurses marveled that the patient was brought back at all. Not one of the women in the room noticed how Alec's grip on the side of the bed had actually dented the guardrail.
Shankar took a deep breath and began. "Whatever was in that cure managed to launch a full scale attack on Max's endocrine system, which is highly volatile and highly sensitive to perturbation."
Alec sat straight in his chair with all his attention focused on the doctor. He was listening closely for any kernel that might be the clue to bringing Max back to herself. His hand was locked on the comatose woman's, his fingers tangled with her own as they had since she'd been pulled back from the brink of death. Shankar stood in front of him holding Max's chart and the results of numerous tests. X-ray film was illuminated and mounted against the wall behind the petite woman. Her voice had taken on the tone of a university lecturer.
"It has severely upset Max's physiological balance." She waved her pen in front of images of several cross-sections of the transgenic's brain as if to illustrate her point…as if Alec knew what the hell he was looking at. "All animal behaviors," she continued, "are essentially caused by the chemicals produced by that particular animal's brain. Within any animal these chemicals are balanced by systems that modern science still has not fully grasped. Particularly in humans, this balance is very fragile. And, what I think Max has shown us is that the balance within a transgenic is even more so as a result of all the different animals that make up what you are."
"Well," Alec said under his breath, "that theory would certainly explain all of the insane anomalies that Manticore kept in the basement."
Shankar, having heard him, locked shocked eyes on Alec for a moment. When he gestured for her to continue, she took a deep breath. "The best I can determine is that whatever this foreign agent was caused her body to overproduce naturally occurring chemicals associated with her chimeric DNA. Those chemicals in turn threw her entire system out of whack. I'm not just talking about the physical either…though I have to admit that those eyes are pretty damn scary," she said the last as if speaking to herself. "I'm talking about her mental and emotional makeup as well. This would account for both the behavioral changes that you mentioned to me as well as the change in her scent you noticed. Her MRI showed some incredible brain activity, even in her present state."
"There are no limits. What the mind can conceive the body can achieve," Alec repeated the words that had been barked at him so often back at Manticore. He sighed. "So how do we stop it?"
"We don't." She held up a hand to stave off Alec's angry exclamations. "What I mean is, we can't. We're not even close to having the technology to cook up something that could reverse the process. Besides, her body has already started to reject the effects of the cure. That's what the fever was, and most likely why her heart stopped. She was burning off the excess and attempting to jump start herself, for lack of better phrasing. As far as I can tell, it has run fully through her system at this point. This," she nodded her head toward Max's comatose form, "is just the aftermath. All we can do now is keep watch and hope that her body will naturally right itself."
Shankar observed in amazement as Alec's face completely shut down. It was as if all the emotion and life just drained from it. He became absolutely still. She'd never seen anyone do that. It was as if she were staring at a statue, not a person. She wondered if she would be able sense him sitting there at all if she were to look away. Was he even breathing? Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to grab him by the shoulders and shake the life back into him. She chose to speak to him instead, hoping that might be enough. "Max's condition is stable at least. And that's something."
"Yeah," Alec whispered, his eyes turned to Max's serene face. "That's something." He watched her chest rise and fall with each breath. Suddenly, he stood and began unfastening the restraints that bound Max to the bed.
"What are you doing?"
"These are unnecessary." After freeing one wrist, he moved around the bed, releasing first one ankle and then the other.
"You're the one who insisted upon them in the first place, Alec."
"Yeah, and now I'm taking them off." His wasn't making much sense to her and he knew it. But he didn't much care at the moment. He just couldn't bear to look at Max trussed up one moment longer. He could feel Shankar staring at him. "Would you let Cindy know what the situation is. She's still up on Logan's floor, probably in the lounge."
"Sure, of course."
The doctor left and Alec sat beside Max once again. Her hand was immediately back in his. He noticed that the skin of one of her knuckles was split. He gently ran his thumb over the abrasion. It was already healing, along with the all other physical evidence of their brawl.
This must have happened on that last punch to the mouth she gave me, he thought to himself. He brushed his lips softly over the wound.
She was still so pale. She reminded him of another sick young woman by whose bedside he'd once sat. The memory assaulted him, and he closed his eyes against it. He extended every sense he had out to the very real, very alive woman lying on the bed beside him now. Her scent was already back to normal. He took a deep breath as though he could fill himself with the comforting familiarity of it. He was reassured by the warmth of her wrist and the gentle thump of her steady pulse against the palm of his hand. He could hear her breathing. It just sounded like she was asleep. No matter how fragile she might look at the moment, he reminded himself, she was strong. She was stronger than anyone he'd ever known. She would get better. She wouldn't die on him.
"You're gonna wake up pretty soon and yell at me as usual."
Despite his best effort, his voice cracked on the words. Unbidden, a stinging sensation began behind his closed eyes and a whimper bubbled up in his throat, seeking escape. He laid his head down on their hands, hiding his face from anyone who might look in on them. He had to keep it together, for both their sakes. He couldn't protect Max if he was a weeping wreck. He inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent again. It calmed him, reassured him. The tears slid silently down his cheeks now. He gripped her hand like a lifeline, holding it close to his face. He sat like that for hours. Not moving, or sleeping, or even thinking, held in his own stasis as long as Max remained in hers.
She woke slowly. The first thing she noticed was how cold she was. So very cold except for one hand, which was very warm and…wet. She seemed to be holding on to something. Whatever it was, it was shaking slightly and sending fine tremors up her arm. She squeezed her hand and was rewarded with a sharp intake of breath.
She felt the surface she was on shift under new weight. Slowly, she opened her normal, dark brown eyes. She was lying in a hospital bed. There was just no mistaking the ugly taupe ceiling. A pair of hazel eyes circled in green, dark with worry, and shimmering with something else, slowly came into view.
"Alec?" Her voice was hoarse, and her throat hurt like hell.
"Hey there, Maxie." The smile she was rewarded with was encouraging, relieved, and seemed a little sad. "Welcome back."
"What," she swallowed and tried again, "What happened?"
"You don't remember?"
Max closed her eyes for a moment and tried to think, tried to enforce a bit of order within her throbbing head. The images that came at her in a rush were chaotic and made her head throb harder. But one memory rose to the forefront with a sharpness so acute it snapped her eyes open and sat her up on the bed with a sudden gasp.
"Oh my god! Joshua! I threw him in the basement!"
"Shhh, shhh," Alec calmed her with his voice while firmly gripping her shoulders to keep her on the bed. "It's okay. I got him out already, don't worry. He wasn't even down there that long."
She seemed to calm down at his words. What Alec didn't know was that the day's events were playing back from start to finish in fast forward through Max's mind. She was overwhelmed with emotions and images: hitting Sketchy, stealing in broad daylight, cat and mouse, Joshua, fighting in the rain, fierce joy right before the kill, Logan, Alec, drawing blood like an animal. All these thoughts passed through mind behind her still face while Alec nodded and smiled at her reassuringly, lightly rubbing his hands up and down her arms. So it was to his absolute shock when she burst into tears.
"I'm a monster," she wailed. "I'm a 'nomalie, just like Ben. It should have been me." Alec didn't understand what she was saying, but he could relate to the anguish in her voice. He pulled her close. "It should have been me," she quietly declared.
Max was a broken, sobbing heap in his arms. Her pain tore through her chest and her body shook with it like a small willow caught in a whirlwind. Alec held her tightly. She fisted her hands in his shirt. Her tears seeped through to soak his chest beneath her cheek. One of his hands cradled the base of her head, holding it in place. He bent his lips to her silky hair and ruffled the strands with whispers of soothing nonsense. His other hand smoothed over her back in gentle strokes. In an effort to comfort her, he rubbed his cheek against her top of her head, unconsciously trying to use his familiar scent to calm her.
"Shhh. Shhh. You're not a monster. We are what we are, Maxie."
"Why can't I just be normal?" After a moment Alec pulled away a bit to stare into her sad brown eyes. Their warm breath mingled in the small distance between them. He cocked his head to the side and put on an expression of thoughtful seriousness.
"Well, I could buy you a pair of black rimmed glasses, and you could call me Rock Star." He raised an eyebrow above suddenly laughing eyes. "But if you start yelling 'Bip, bip, bip' we're gonna have a real problem."
Max blinked damp lashes at him for a stunned moment before laughter forced its way past her tears. Alec smiled lightly and cupped her wet cheeks in his strong palms, wiping at the tears with his thumbs.
"You know," he said quietly, "a normal girl can't execute a killer heist. A normal girl can't fix a motorcycle while blindfolded with one arm tied behind her back. A normal girl can't leap tall buildings in a single bound," he chuckled. "A normal girl's got nothing on you, Maxie."
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then the tip of her nose. He brushed his mouth over each damp cheek. Her lips were trembling. Without thinking, Alec stilled them with his own. He could feel the blood rushing through his body and his heartbeat was a loud boom in his chest rivaled only by the sound of Max's own steady thumping.
This wasn't the first time Max had felt the softness of Alec's lips. But the incident under the docks when he'd been unconscious paled in comparison to the strength and heat she now felt in his sensuous caress. His strong hands moved from her cheeks to tangle in the wavy mass of her hair as he pulled her mouth more firmly into his. She clutched at his shirt with an iron grip as if he were a lifeline and she a drowning woman. Her tongue swept over the cut on his lip, soothing the sting away.
He pressed his lips against hers until she opened to him with a small gasp. His tongue glided into the warm cavern of her mouth. Her sweet taste was like nothing he'd ever had before. Their breath merged as their mouths did. There was no thought left in either transgenic's mind. There was nothing but the naked sensation of closeness. It was a closeness that neither of them had ever truly experienced before. It felt so very right.
Alec was the first to pull away. For a moment Max sat perfectly still, her eyes closed. He couldn't move at all. He was mesmerized by the black crescent moons that her long lashes made against her cheeks. Her tongue peeked out and slowly licked across her lips as if tasting the remnant of his kiss. A strangled sound escaped his throat at the sight. Max's eyes fluttered open like she was waking from a dream. He saw her come back to herself, awareness flooding into her eyes. He gave her a small half smile.
Then her forceful shove sent him flying off the bed to land on his ass on the cold linoleum floor. It only took him a moment to regain his wits.
"What the hell was that!" Alec's only slightly shocked gaze locked on her face. A fire burned in the brown depths of her beautiful eyes, but whether with passion or anger or both, he couldn't be sure.
"That's what I'd like to know, pretty boy!" Before the recriminations could fly, OC walked into the room.
"Boo! You're awake!" The pretty human woman rushed over to her best friend and wrapped her in a strong hug. "Don't you ever scare Original Cindy like that again, you hear?"
Alec stood and dusted imaginary dirt from the seat of his pants. He cleared his throat and said, "I'll just go get the doc." As usual, the two women didn't pay him any mind, but that made no difference to him. She was back. There was a lightness in his step and is his heart as he headed toward the door. And there was a genuine smile on his face that Max caught out of the corner of her eye as he left the room.
The hospital lounge was dimly lit and sparsely furnished. A few worn chairs with threadbare cushions were placed at irregular intervals and rickety, low tables holding a few old magazines were scattered here and there. A television stamped with "Property of Harbor Lights Hospital" was bolted high in one corner of the room. It droned on quietly in the background, playing one of those pre-dawn news shows for the benefit of the unfortunate souls who had to get up and go before the sun.
The lounge was empty but for Alec, who paced back and forth the length of the room. Someone watching might have thought he was trying to wear a hole into the cheap linoleum floor. A look of consuming concentration was upon his face, furrowing his brow and giving his eyes a faraway look. The tip of his thumb was being fiercely gnawed upon. It would get a bit of reprieve every few minutes when he would run his hand through the hair at the back of his head and down over his barcode.
He glanced down to the other end of the hallway, where he could see the closed door to Max's room. Dr. Shankar was in there with her and Original Cindy. Once Alec had gotten the doctor down there, he'd left them alone. It wasn't just that he knew all about Max's hang ups about privacy, he also needed a little space to think. The lounge was the perfect spot. He was close enough to see Max's room and anyone coming or going, but he was out of her immediate line of sight. There was no doubt that Max would know he wasn't far away should she need him. He never was.
So he moved about the lounge, trying to work the tension that had built up over the course of that insane day through his system. He was relieved beyond words that Max was awake and apparently herself. Except for the crying thing. And except for the kissing him back thing. At those thoughts, Alec increased the speed of his pacing.
What had he been thinking when he leaned into Max's full lips? All he'd wanted was for her to feel that she wasn't alone. He'd needed her to understand that no matter what the fallout from the day's events would be, he would have her back. He wanted her to feel strong and sure again, would have given her some of his own strength to make her so. At the time it had seemed perfectly logical to kiss her.
His thumb was back between his teeth. Who was he kidding? There was no logic. He'd kissed her because she was Max, and because to not have kissed her in that one window of opportunity would have killed something inside of him. Well, it could have ended much worse than it did. He smirked to himself. Sure he'd ended up on his ass, but she hadn't cursed him or belittled him or said that she hated him. She hadn't thrown him out of her life. And, for a moment, no matter how brief, she'd been kissing him back.
He glanced down toward her room again, then sighed and turned back to the lounge. Just in time to see footage of the sector cops gunning down a transhuman earlier in the day, followed by extremely blurry hoverdrone footage, so blurry that it could never be used to truly identify the individual depicted. Of course, Alec knew who it was. He recognized the woman standing in the rain-filled night wearing dark glasses and pointing the gun that now rested at the small of his back. He stared unmoving at the screen, listening as the anchorwoman recounted the news.
"While these stories may or may not be related, eyewitness reports match this woman to one described as having super-human strength who terrorized a local motorcycle dealership yesterday afternoon. And anonymous tipsters have been claiming the existence of what they call X-Series Transgenics. Mutant soldiers who look just like regular people."
For a moment, Alec forgot to breathe. "This is bad," he said to himself. "This is so, so very bad."
As it was taken off her arm, the blood pressure cuff made that ripping sound that indicates the presence of Velcro. OC perched on the bed beside her, arm linked in one of hers as the doctor checked her over.
"Well your vitals and responses seem to be back to normal, Max. How do you feel?"
The brunette shrugged at Shankar's question. "Like I've been battered, beaten, poked, prodded, and blasted with lots of electricity. You know, a regular day in the life. So, can I go now?"
"Max, you are still weak, and, while you're not acting completely out of character, you're probably still suffering from a certain amount of chemical imbalance." She sighed, "But, for all that, I highly doubt Alec is going to let me keep you here much longer."
"Yeah Boo," OC piped up, "your boy's been mad protective of you while you was out."
Max shook her head at both of them, not wanting to discuss Alec at the moment. Instead she asked, "Exactly what do you mean by chemical imbalance?"
"I mean that your body is most likely still regulating its systems. As a result you may experience some extreme sensations and your emotions may be closer to the surface. You may find you have less control."
"You mean something is taking me over? It's not really me?" The note in Max's voice was hopeful while at the same time wary.
"No, it's still fundamentally you: your thoughts, your actions, your instincts. You'll just be more likely to express it all. Think of it like getting PMS."
"I don't get PMS." When the other two women just looked at her askance she continued in a defensive tone, "I don't! I go into heat every once in a while. That's my cycle."
"Coulda fooled me," muttered OC.
"Cindy!"
"What?"
Max rolled her eyes at her best friend and turned back to Shankar. "So how long before this bitch works itself out and I'm back in control?"
"I'd say, a few more hours, at least.
Max made a face. "Oh, that's just great," wry sarcasm dripped from every word. She was rethinking the her whole 'leave the hospital ASAP' plan. She lifted one of the leather arm restraints that was hanging off the dented guardrail. "Maybe we ought to just put these back on to keep me out of trouble." She paused for a minute, then raised one finely-arched eyebrow. "You wouldn't happen to have a set for my lips, would you?"
Alec sighed and walked away from the television toward the large window that sat high above the front parking lot of the hospital. He eyes drifted over the skyline of sleeping Seattle. Well, he'd known all along that it would have to end sometime. Soon all the people down there would know all about the existence of his kind. Soon all those ordinaries struggling to survive in this broken world, as Max called it, would become his enemies. Too bad. He'd really started to love sharing in their filth and degradation. It was kind of fun.
Movement in the parking lot caught his eye. Several vehicles had pulled into the area. Men in dark suits were getting out of nondescript, four-door sedans. The hair on the back of his neck was already standing on end when he used his transgenic eyesight to zoom in for a closer look. They were definitely packing heat. He could tell by the minute bulges along the lines of their suits.
The back door to one of the cars had just opened. The boogie man stepped out into the not quite darkness that heralds the dawn. As if sensing Alec's gaze, White turned and looked up at the window. For two heartbeats the two men just stared at each other. Then White smiled the anticipatory grin of a natural predator. And Alec disappeared from the window.
Less than ten seconds later, Alec barged into Max's room and barked out one word, "White."
At the name, Max immediately yanked out her IV and ripped off the adhesive pads connecting her to the numerous beeping monitors. She pulled the hospital gown over her head without a thought to her state of undress.
"OC," Alec ordered, "get to Logan's room now and stay there. If anyone approaches, call Sung." He reached into his pocket and tossed her the detective's card. "Shankar, your shift is over." He tore Max's charts from the clipboard and stuffed them in his jacket. "Move!" he yelled at the two ordinaries when he noticed that they hesitated beside Max. He went to his weak friend as she tried to stand. He steadied her with one hand while pulling her Glock out of the waistband of his pants and clicking off the safety. At the sight of the gun, Shankar and OC finally got the hint and made a hasty exit.
OC took one look back at the two transgenics. "Take care of yo'selves, boos."
Alec gave her a quick grin. "Yes, Ma'am."
He kept his eyes on the door and his ears at their farthest range while Max dressed as swiftly as she could beside him. He heard the telltale footfalls all too soon.
"Alec?" There was a note of panic in Max's voice that he wasn't used to hearing.
"Window." She moved to the back of the room and lifted the pane of glass, while Alec kept his focus and his gun on the door. She scanned the darkness behind the hospital.
"Clear," she said, before easing herself onto the narrow ledge. She moved carefully, still feeling weak and not quite herself. She felt Alec at her back and gained a little confidence. He'd never let her fall. Once she was securely perched, Alec pulled himself after. The door to her room burst open just as Alec pulled her body into his and leapt. Somehow he managed to sweep his arm under her knees so that he was cradling her body during the latter half of their free fall. He hit the ground blurring, not stopping until he'd reached her Ninja, which was parked between two large dumpsters that hid it from any cursory glances.
He set her on her feet beside the bike and then immediately hopped on and started the bike.
"You are so not driving my baby!"
"Ride now, argue later!" He lifted her up in the air and brought her down so fast that she had no choice but to straddle his lap facing him. Max's yelp of surprise was lost as he gunned the engine. Almost immediately several vehicles were on their tail, chasing them with screaming sirens and a hail of bullets.
Alec tried to concentrate on keeping them alive as he wove through the early morning traffic at breakneck speed. He tried to focus on keeping out of the path of the many bullets whizzing past them. But it was really hard when Max was in his lap. Her warm thighs were naked but for her tiny skirt. And his superior memory kept flashing to the vision of her red panties when she'd kicked him earlier that night.
His reason screamed at his libido. Get your other head in the game, soldier!
Max made herself as small as possible so it would be easier for Alec to maneuver their combined weight through traffic. Her hands gripped his hips and her head was pressed into his chest. Her knees were tucked in tight and her feet rested firmly on the passenger pegs. She was as stable as she could make herself, and as helpful as she could be to Alec. Adrenaline was pumping through her system, and it was making her all more aware of the emotional instability that Shankar had mentioned. For, despite the perils of their present situation, all Max could think about was how good Alec smelled and how reassuring the steady thump of his heart was underneath her cheek.
Close as she was, Max felt the force of the bullet when it tore through Alec's body. She heard it whistle passed her ear just after it exited his shoulder. He grunted in pain and the bike wavered for a moment before he quickly brought it under control.
"Alec!"
"I'm fine." The words were forced through clenched teeth. Max could hear his pain, and something inside her clicked on.
Threat. Survive. Protect.
Without another thought, she reached up with one small hand to apply pressure to the wound while her other hand reached around his waist beneath his leather jacket to wrap around the handle of her Glock. She didn't hesitate as she pulled the gun from the back of his pants and sighted their pursuers. The clip was almost full, she recalled, but she still planned to make every bullet count.
Her arm blurred as she used transgenic speed to aim and fire. Tires blew out and hoods popped up, causing the cars leading the chase to slam into one another. The driver of the car coming just behind the vehicles she'd disabled slammed on his breaks to avoid hitting the others, but the driver tailing him did not. The last car flew through the air after riding over the trunk of his fellow and ended with a crash on its side.
"Clear," Max whispered at Alec's ear, knowing that he'd hear her even over the driving wind and the roar of the Ninja.
She looked down at the weapon she'd just used. The gun felt natural in her hand. Firing the gun had felt even more natural. She blinked a few times and glanced up. She could still see the smoke from the wrecked vehicles rising against the lightening horizon. She wasn't sure how she should react to the sight or to the knowledge that she'd caused it with a gun. Her gun.
When she'd been recaptured by Manticore and thrust back into their training program, she been forcibly reacquainted with firearms. It was either that or face more time in cramped solitary. But, during all the drills and target practices, she'd still never felt comfortable with guns. She could always feel the weight of Eva's death in the cold metal in her hands, and the guilt and remorse had been almost unbearable. After all, Eva had aimed at Lydecker to protect her.
But, something had changed today. She'd spent the day traipsing around the city packing heat without a care in the world and without any thoughts to consequences or deeper meanings or emotional baggage. That probably increased her comfort level just a hair. For the first time since she'd been a child with her siblings back at Manticore, Max had felt no guilt, no remorse, no regrets. There were just her wants and her needs, her instincts and her desires. Everything had been simple, and it had felt so good to just be and not control it all.
Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. Sure, she needed to exert a certain amount of discipline and control over her instincts. Her survival depended on it. The survival and sanity of all the transgenics depended on their ability to keep that balance. She knew that. But, could she have been imbalanced before, when she was trying to hide all her instincts and blend, trying to be something and someone that she really was not? Alec said that she wasn't a monster, and she had to believe him. Because at the moment she just couldn't bring herself to feel guilty for her instinct to survive. And she wouldn't feel guilty for making sure that Alec did too.
It was all too much to deal with right now, too many thoughts and feelings clamoring around in her head. Max put more pressure on Alec's wound. His grunt of pain moved her attention away from herself. "We need to stop and check your wound."
"Not this close to White. I can wait until we get there. Won't be too much longer, and I've traveled farther with worse."
"Where's there?"
"Terminal City."
Logan awoke in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable bed. Well, to be fair, it may have been uncomfortable only because he was sore from scalp to soles. Where was he and why the hell did he feel like he'd been hit by the family yacht? He tried to sit up.
"Hey," a sassy voice called from the door of the room. "Hey, take it easy, Sugah."
He glanced over to the speaker and croaked, "Cindy?" His voice was raspy and raw from almost being choked to death.
She walked over to him and gave him a small smile. "That would be me. How're you feeling."
"Oh, just great." Transgenics weren't the only ones who could be sarcastic. "Where's Max?" He struggled to pull himself upright. He couldn't stand to face the world from his back.
"It's a'ight," the black beauty assured him. "You're both safe."
"Cindy, where is she?" His tone had taken on an edge that had nothing to do with his abused throat. The need to have all the facts, the need to be in the know, was what always drove him. It was enough to make him forget his physical pain for a moment.
She calmly sat down and patted the older man's hand. "Relax, it's all good. She's with Alec."
After a moment of staring at her, Logan began laughing with the hysterical sound of someone on the edge of his sanity. "She's with Alec. Of course she is."
OC just shook her head as she watched his reaction. She really did hate to see a grown man cry.
TBC