Well here we go. Last chapter - finally. This got way longer than I had thought it would. Then again I started this so long ago I am not even sure that I know what I was thinking at the time - beyond that it would be fun to write. Boy, was I wrong. Talk about being ambushed by angst. But it is all better now and I finally get to the part that inspired this whole thing. You see it wasn't the gold chain that got me started it was a little scene in here that has to do with Sketchy. And it wasn't supposed to be a romance. Go figure. I think Rushdie knew what he was talking about when he said that he never knew where a story was going that in fact he only felt like a handy pen at times. Best laid plans, after all. That said, I hope you like the Epilogue.

Oh, yeah, and I don't own Dark Angel.

Epilogue

Alec woke to a very different feeling. Something was different, but in a good way. With closed eyes he tried to analyse the situation. He was lying in his bed, snuggled into his blankets. Drowsily he moved one arm across the bed and felt - nothing. There was nothing there! Had it all been a dream? Had none of it happened. Max in the gold dress and them talking, finally getting it all out in the open. Max telling him that she loved him.

All a figment of his imagination. A deep sigh escaped his lips as he fell back among the sheets, one arm thrown over his exes in despair. This was just too much.

A wonderful smell assaulted his nose and a second later a very warm, and entirely naked body slid over his and deposited a cup of coffee on his bedside table. Then said body snuggled into his side and rested it's head on his shoulder.

Moving ever so slowly, Alec raised his arm enough to peek out from under it, at the warm weight resting on his shoulder. Brown curls came into view and a part of him that he had never even known was tense relaxed. Carefully he reached out and stroked the hair that flowed so luxuriously over his chest. With a deep purr Max pressed into his caress, then tilted her head and looked him full in the eye.

"Morning, sleepyhead." She smiled at him and then leaned forward and gave him a quick, hard kiss.

Alex basked in her affection, then threw a quick glance at his alarm clock.

"Sleepyhead?" He scoffed lightly. "Hardly, it's not even eight."

Max grinned at him. "Hello, shark DNA here. I was awake at five."

Alec was curious. "So what have you been doing since then? Ogling my fine body." His jaw dropped, when Max went beet red.

"Really?"

Max huffed. "So what?. I don't get to look?" She made as if to get off the body and felt a thrill run through her when Alec pinned her to his side with one arm, for the first time exerting his superior strength. He ran a hand over the long lines of her body, until she was once again relaxed against him.

"You can look all you want Maxie." He looked her deep in the eyes. "As long as I get to return the favour."

Max cuffed him lightly on the arm. "Do I get to touch, too?"

Rolling over, so he was lying on his side while she was tucked against him, Alec lowered his head until his lips were a hairsbreadth away from hers. "You can touch all you want. Whenever, wherever." His lips crushed to hers and he gave himself up into the kiss.

A long time later, Alec was propped against the headboard, with Max leaning into his shoulder. Although he feared her answer he had enough trust in their nascent relationship to ask the questions burning in his heart.

You know I still have some questions, right?"

"What do you want to know?" Before Alec could answer, Max cut him off. "Because I want you to know everything about me. All of it, but then maybe you don't want to know anything. You know too much information, Forget that, whatever you want - mpf."

A long kiss later, Alec stroked a hand over Max's hair and said: "I think you babble on purpose so that I shut you up."

"Mmmmmm" Max purred like a cat and shot him a devilish look under her lashes. "You catch on fast."

"So, why the casinos?"

Max smiled a full-on smile that made Alec's gut clench. 'I want her to always smile like that.'

"Did Logan ever tell you how we met?" Alec refrained from answering, sure that this non sequitur had a reason.

"I broke into his penthouse one night. He had this lovely little Egyptian statue I was going to fence. But he caught me. In the act that is. I jumped out the window. Came back later. He was waiting - offered me a deal. He wouldn't snitch me to the police and help me find my family. I would do some eyes-only missions for him."

Alec tightened his grip on her waist, not sure how she would react to his next question. "Some missions? You have been putting your life on the line for that man for as long as I know you. And I haven't exactly seen your family beat a path to your door because of his help. What there was came by themselves, right?"

Max sighed a very deep sigh. "I know. You're right. Zack found me by himself and he brought the others. Wasn't exactly a real quid pro quo. But it worked out okay. I got a job at Jam Pony, found my best friend. It all went swimmingly."

"Apart from Lydecker coming close." Alec put in.

Max cuffed him lightly, then giggled as Alec dug his fingers into her waist. "Yeah. Stop. Apart from that. But I needed money. You know what they say about informants."

Alec grinned. "Never keep only one. Manticore one oh one."

"Exactly. So I did the odd little heist, just to keep my hand in and afloat." She grinned winningly at Alec who smirked. "Of course that was your only reason."

"You know it. I wasn't at Jam Pony long, when there was something else. Sketchy decided to do a deal with the Russians. Deliveries and such."

"This ends in tears doesn't it?" Alec asked.

"True. Anyway on one of the deliveries he lost the money."

"He didn't! So what did he do?"

"He tried to win the money back in the poker dens, but you know what he's like."

"He lost more."

"That's an understatement. He lost another ten grand on top of the twenty they wanted back. The poker men were just about to go postal on his knees, when he asked for help. So O.C. and I said we would help."

"By dressing up as two-dollar hookers and fleecing poor working men of their hard-earned dollars?"

Max laughed, an almost girly sound that tickled Alec's chest and made his throat tight with emotion. "Hardly. By dressing as thousand dollar strippers and fleecing mobsters of their blood money."

Alec shrugged. "Fair enough. It's not like -"

"It's their money." Max finished. They shared a smile.

Max stretched, and watched with satisfaction as Alec's eyes darkened with desire. Throwing a leg over his, she made herself more comfortable. She had never felt this comfortable with herself and her partner in her life. This was it. No more searching.

"This is it, isn't it?" Alec asked, unconsciously voicing her thoughts. Wrapping his arms more securely around her waist, he hitched her up until she lay across his chest.

"What do we do next?"

"Whatever we want. That's the joy of it. Whatever we want."

"So what do you want right now?" Alec asked, raising an eyebrow in what he considered a suggestive manner.

"I might have an idea or two. Why don't you let me show you."

The End