Author- Northernmoon

Rating – PG-13 for now (for language)

Pairings- M/A

Disclaimer- none of these characters belong to me, don't sue!

A/N- As always, I'd like any feedback you're willing to give. Assume that this is after A and M have a heart to heart about Ben but doesn't include any of the other drama after that.

I know it's been over a year…but I AM back and I promise to finish this story. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and encouraged me not to give up. I won't give you my sad excuses, but thanks for sticking with me!

Chapter 6 - Confessions

Max looked over at the miserable expression on Sketchy's face and sighed. She was obviously not going to like whatever he had been trying to tell her all afternoon.

They were on the way back to Jam Pony after their last pick up. Max's head had been up in her own clouds for a while before she had noticed the thundercloud hanging over her friend.

She cut in front of Sketchy and stopped, gesturing with her head to the beat up coffee truck on the side of the road. He followed walking his bike behind her. Max handed him his drink and kicked the debris to clear off a spot on the curb. They settled down, side by side, and Max turned to him and said,

"Are you gonna spill what's up? Or am I going to have to smack it out of you?"

A small grin softened her words but Sketchy felt even worse at this. He threw his cup into the gutter, put both his hands on his head, and started to speak softly, without breaking eye contact with the brown puddle of goo under his foot.

When he had stammered through his story, he finally looked up to gauge Max's expression, wincing from a punch that never came.

"Max…?" He tried to catch her attention back from wherever it was that she seemed to have gone.

She softly whispered, "I don't understand why you just didn't tell me."

She looked at him with a sadness in her eyes that he hadn't seen before.

"Max, I'm so sorry. I know I just totally fucked it up and…"

She raised her hand to silence him and tucked her hair behind her ear and said a little coldly, "Sketch, I really don't know what to say to you."

She looked back up at the skyline towards the space needle and the dark clouds moving over the city.

"Let's finish this at crash tonight. You'll be there?" She asked in distant voice.

"Yeah I'm there, but Max, listen…" She cut him off again with her hand and shortly snipped out, "Not now."

As if nothing had happened, she asked, " Can you finish this last run? I've got someplace I gotta be."

Scratching his head he replied automatically, "Sure, no problem."

"Later then," she said and kicked off on her bike without a backward glance.

Back at Jam Pony, Sketchy was the man of the hour. He slunk his was back to his locker, trying to avoid the props and slaps on the back from many of his male co-workers, only to find Alec and OC waiting for him.

"Where's my Boo? You sad lame-assed excuse for a wigger friend!" OC was about to pounce when Alec grabbed her shoulders to hold her back.

"Oh, I see. So its like that. You of the three legged stick together no matter what!" she spat with venom at Alec.

He raised his hands in self-defence and put on his most charming grin, which, he was secretly certain, someday, somehow would finally get to OC.

"Hey you can have him, I just need him for two minutes, in one piece, before you have your…uh…talk." With this he pulled a betrayed Sketchy aside.

Alec scrutinized Sketchy with a puzzled look and said, "I'm confused man, your expression tells me you told her, yet your body, most notably, the lack of blood, bumps and bruising, tells me another story."

"I told her okay." Sketchy looked at Alec with some resentment.

Alec motioned for him to continue.

"She didn't hit me or even yell. She just kind of shut down," Sketchy finished.

"What did she say?" Alec couldn't stop the spurt of anger, knowing that if he had been in Sketchy's place Max would have wiped the floor with him. He also felt sympathy for his friend, remembering what being shut out by Max could feel like.

"Not much. Said we'd talk later. She seemed to want to think about it."

With a raised eyebrow Alec mused, "our Maxie generally isn't a "think first, act later" kind of gal."

Sketchy nodded his agreement. "I know. That's what has me worried. She's more of the…"

"Explode now and then explode some more later type." Alec finished with a fond grin.

"Yeah." Sketchy winced as OC marched back over.

"Aiight fool, your two mo mo is up!"

Alec slapped Sketchy on the back and disappeared leaving them to …uh… talk.

To say she was overwhelmed by the day was a gross understatement.

Max shook her wet hair and then tucked her face back into her arms to try to avoid the better part of the night's downpour.

"Okay," She said out loud, raising her head again, "enough with this mood. Let's break this down Manticore style and triage this bitch."

'Okay, first thing first' she took a deep breath and decided that whatever the hell had happened with her and Alec could be set-aside for now. 'Yeah, I know,' she placated the protesting voice in her head, 'that's what started this whole mess.'

'For right now, this isn't critical.' She suspected that this justification was made easier by the fact that she needed to focus on a completely different priority as far as Alec was concerned.

'Okay, to deal with Alec, move to what I do best, escape and evade. Well, with the primary emphasis on evade. Alec digging into her business would be a disaster.'

'So my objective is to keep Alec out of this at all costs.' As the protesting voice in her head asked why this was so important, Max decided that this was another Alec matter that could be set aside and considered later. The voice did note that her Alec-avoidance pile was getting awfully big before Max squashed it down for the night.

'Lets focus on the biggest problem now, Rafer.'

She had avoided even thinking about this for way too long, which was fine when it only hurt her. She was worried though that if she didn't finally take some control over this mess soon it was going to spiral out of her control. Then there would be hell to pay. Other people, her family people, could get hurt too, or worse.

'Just for my own sanity, I need confirmation. The state I was in at the hospital…I'm not a reliable source.' Max still continued to fight what her instincts told her was true.

'The problem is that to get the confirmation I need to go forward, I'm going to need help of the non-Logan & non-Alec variety.' Not for the first time, Max wished that OC's original-ness was of a transgenic nature.

Thinking back over her day, Cece came to mind as Max pondered the possibilities a new friendship could present.

'I guess I'll just have to see how that goes,' she thought. 'If she decides to hold onto all the 09'er baggage, maybe I could bribe her with oranges.'

Her thoughts came full circle as she thought back to the bright point of her day with a sad smile.

"Now, what am I going to do about Sketchy?" she asked the wind as it blew another gust of rain onto her.

"Some how I have to find a way to keep us all safe."