Freedom on the inside
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own anything to do with Dark Angel. They apparently belong to some guy who is most definitely in need of a brain check. What was he thinking when he decided to axe the show? Oh well, I guess when I'm rich enough I'll just have to buy the rights to the programme and then we'll finally get a third season. I wouldn't count on it though.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: M/A (eventually!)
Summary: What if Max never escaped Manticore in 'Designate This' and didn't get the chance to infect Logan? Logan and everyone else in Seattle thinks she's dead and Renfro's still alive?
Author's Note: I know there's been a lot of 'what if she never escaped stories?' but this is my shot at what could have happened. Please read and review!
Chapter Twenty
Read Between Lines
"That was quick!" Alec yelled over the deafening sound of his new TV.
"Not much to really talk about," Max sighed as she kicked off her boots.
"What?" Alec yelled again.
Rolling her eyes, Max stomped over to the TV, flicked the off switch and turned to face Alec's child like scowl, "There wasn't much to talk about."
"Ok," Alec moaned, "but did you have to turn the TV off. I found the thing in a dump. It took me an hour just to get one channel to work; goodness knows if it's going to work again now!"
Whacking him on the head as she walked past, Max moved to barricade herself in her room. The further she was away from him, the easier it would be to convince herself that she didn't have any feelings for Alec – the typically pig-headed boy. Yep, she was definitely back to the denial stage again.
The lights were out and the corridors of Manticore were eerily silent. Barefooted and dressed in a casual grey t-shirt and bottoms, Ginger stealthily crept across the halls carrying a medium sized apparently full shoe box.
She was lonely, there was no denying that. Her commanding officer, and dare she say it within the walls of Manticore, her friend, was gone. As was the only girlfriend she had had. And so in some twisted but quite typical way, it was Max who had left her without one friend but had found her another.
Ginger slowed down as she neared her destination, being more careful and aware of any lurking dangers of getting caught, she stopped in front of a familiar metal door. She slid the metal bar along, knowing full well that it would be unlocked. The usual habitant was away on a mission, and to be quite honest, she wouldn't really mind. She didn't bother with turning on the light switch; she knew exactly where everything was. Lifting up the bunk, she hooked it firmly against the wall and then began moving the bricks at the bottom of the wall. It was time to visit her friend Joshua.
"Hey you!" Normal yelled in his usual monotonic drawl, "I don't pay you to yak on the phone; I pay you to deliver packages, now bip!"
The Jam Pony messenger scowled at him before grabbing the packages and pushing past Max who had just entered the building.
"What's up with him?" Max asked no one in particular.
"What's up with him, missy miss, is that if he hadn't moved in the next ten seconds, his ass would have been fired!" Normal answered moving back behind the counter, "And the same applies to you!"
"You know Normal, unless you hadn't noticed, I just got in."
"Yes," Normal looked at his imaginary watch, "an hour late."
Max tilted her head in thought before answering back flippantly, "Minor technicality."
Normal glared at her, "Don't get smart with me, Max."
Max shrugged, "Being smart just comes naturally."
Picking up a package, he threw it at her, "Sector four, with Alec, bip!" he yelled, gesturing his hands forward as if he were shooing off pigeons.
Max inwardly groaned as she heard that unmistakeable voice come up behind her,
"Hey Normal you called?"
"Yes sunshine, you and Max to sector four now!"
Alec unruffled picked up a collection of packages and walked past Max, "Come on then Maxie, or let me guess you're so happy you got me for company all day that you've frozen on the spot. Ahh. I'm touched Maxie, truly," his sincerity obviously fake.
"You have no idea," Max replied sardonically. Little did Alec realise the truth.
Ginger watched as Joshua hungrily bit into the apples; she had brought down about half a dozen in the old tattered box, which Joshua had quickly come to associate with food, and on seeing the box his reaction had been the same as it had always been. His face had shown nothing but pure unadulterated joy and a second more suppressed emotion of relief.
The Manticore officers still weren't feeding the Nomlies, well not regularly anyway. So Ginger took it upon herself to bring down as much spare food as she could, whenever she could. And then in between training sessions or after lights out, she would visit her new friend.
When Max had first introduced them, it had been shortly before she had left for the Outside, she had found Joshua to be slightly intimidating. Not because he was scary or anything like that, in fact he was quite the opposite, but it was more to do with the fact she really didn't have a clue as to what they could talk about.
But soon enough all of that changed. They actually had plenty in common; if you overlooked the gene splicing. They both shared a love for reading (she had managed to sneak a couple of novels down as well) and also an equally passionate desire to be free and experience life. That, however, was wherein they differed. Ginger had at least been on the Outside, yes on a mission, but she'd still seen the world beyond the barbed wires; Joshua had never had that liberty.
She continued watching as he threw the last apple core back into the box. Patting his stomach, he growled low in appreciation, "thank you!
"No problem, big fella," Ginger smiled, replacing the lid on the box. Once she'd pushed that out of the way, she turned her whole body to face the part-man part-dog.
"So anything new, Josh?"
"New?" Joshua echoed, his eyes narrowing in confusion.
"Like has anything different happened, what have you been doing?"
Joshua began to shake his head but stopped mid-shake. He went quiet, and then without saying a word, he moved to the corner of the small basement room, where Ginger's books were stacked in uneven piles. The dust flew in small clouds as he started chucking the books from his path.
Ginger had started to open her mouth in question, but immediately snapped her trap shut when she realised that Joshua had found what he had been looking for.
In his hands, it seemed there was tiny screwed up ball of paper, but as Joshua brought it closer and offered it to her; she realised exactly what it was.
"For you," he smiled innocently.
It was made of an old, stained ripped out piece of paper from a book. It had writing all over it, and the name 'Alice' written here and there in the obscured sentences, suggested it was probably made from a torn page off 'Alice in Wonderland.' Despite all that, Ginger was quite clearly overcome with emotion; because there in the palm of her hand, was a single beautiful dove.
"Peace, hope, freedom," Joshua explained, "One day we will have that."
Moving forward, Ginger hugged Joshua tightly, 'One day Josh, Max'll come for us,' she thought silently, not trusting herself to speak aloud. 'One day.'
So the rounds had been as normal as they could get with Alec tagging along beside her. He as per norm continued to get in the way and be rude to every Jam Pony customer they got to serve and then ruined her chances of getting any tips; or a better sum of tips. So, naturally, she was pissed at him. But that again, was the standard with Alec, and to be perfectly honest, she preferred it that way. At least then, she could ram straight into her cushion aptly named denial. But oh no, Alec, typically, wanted to screw that too.
"So how's it going with you and Logan then?" he asked, completely out of the blue, thin air, or whatever cliché there was for an utterly random and illogical question.
Max glanced over at the X5, who was currently riding beside her. She didn't notice his usual smirk or the beginnings of another hack at Logan; but still not believing she was responding to the question, she answered him a simple, "I don't know."
Silence followed.
Max breathed a small sigh of relief, Logan and herself was not a topic she liked to dissect, especially not with a man she supposedly had feelings for.
But this man was still slightly oblivious.
"I thought you loved him."
"Yeah I do," Max snapped.
"So what's the problem," Alec shrugged.
"It's complicated."
"What's complicated? I mean you love him, he loves you (why I don't know) but yeah, what's so complicated about that?"
What was the world coming to? Alec giving her advice about her love life? Maybe she underestimated the jerk. But that didn't make her want to talk about it anymore than she had done previously.
"Look Alec, you won't understand."
"Try me," he said glancing at her as they turned a corner.
A part of Max screamed to let go and tell Alec exactly what was on her mind, and possibly even braver than that, and tell him just how she felt about him; even though that particular area was still very hazy. Another more sensible part of her screamed to keep her lips sealed and not say a word; it would only lead to trouble. But unusually, it was the 'a problem shared, is a problem halved' logic that steered Max's better sense,
"It's not that I think transgenics are superior to humans or vice versa, it's just . . ." Max struggled to convey her meaning, "It's just that I fell this gulf opening between us because he can't accept that I'm a transgenic and always a soldier first."
Alec suddenly steered his bike to the side of the pavement. Max noticing his change of direction followed, and stopped beside him. Now they were no longer moving, they were able to look at each other as they held their conversation.
Alec's impassive yet serious face was slightly unnerving, but Max forced herself to maintain eye contact,
"Have you ever realised that maybe Logan loves you for who you are. I think you don't give the man enough credit. Being an X5 is who you are Max, and it's you he fell in love with. He knows what you are; but guess what Max? He doesn't care."
Max startled by Alec's fervour, tried to interrupt him, but was prevented by Alec placing his fingers against her lips. She was hyper sensitively aware of their softness and warmth.
"I haven't finished," Alec said, before slowly removing his hand. "Maybe, just maybe, you're scared Max. Of commitment, of love or trusting. Or maybe it's not that, maybe you simply don't love him."
Max struggled to keep her emotions bottled under Alec's intense gaze,
"If that's the case, tell the man. I may not be his number one fan, but he doesn't deserve it. And most importantly, neither do you." He whispered the last words. Without saying anymore, he turned back around on his bike and rode off down the street, leaving Max to stare shocked after him.
She definitely didn't give him enough credit; he was exceptionally intuitive and not the ignorant asshole she had first thought he was. And so unsurprisingly, despite all his clarity, he had left her even more confused than to begin with, and somewhere along the way, he had also managed to intensify her feelings for him even more.
Author's Note 2: Yes, I'm back! My muse has finally returned to me and I already have chapters twenty-one and twenty-two written out! Go me! But uh, you may have to wait for them, since I've still got to find time to type them up. But I won't be leaving my updates for months on end; they will (hopefully!) be more frequent! So far, you've all been great, but I just ask that you bear with me since I am very very busy with my A-levels.
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, it's a bit longer than normal - my way of an apology for taking ages with this particular update! Thanks and massive hugs to all those that have been reviewing and reviewed the last chapter! Please let me know what you thought this time round!!!
Love SmilinStar xxx