Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters do not belong to me. This fan-fiction had been written purely for entertainment purposes. No infringement intended and no profit had been made out of this.

A/N: A big thank you to all those who reviewed!

Rules Can Be Broken - Chapter 9

(by elle6778)

Glaring at Zane, Zack growled, "Your game's up. Who the hell are you?"

Taken aback, Zane just stared wordlessly at Zack.

If he thinks he can get away by being silent… Zack fumed inwardly just before his fist extended and contacted hard with Zane's jaw.

Cursing loudly in surprise, Zane ducked another oncoming punch and tried to escape. Before he could, Zack snapped his hand out and grasped Zane by the neck. "You heard me, soldier! What's your designation?"

"Zack! What are you doing?" Max yelled out as she rushed towards them.

"Stay back, Max," he ordered without breaking eye contact with Zane. He felt Max stop right beside him, but did not turn to her. The last thing he needed at that moment was distraction, and Max was a walking distraction. He needed to deal with this so-called 'Zane'.

"Man, what do you mean? What designation?" 'Zane' choked out in bewildered. His hands came up, trying to pry Zack's grip away, but Zack was too strong. And too angry.

"Zack, stop it! What's going on?" Max asked in confusion.

Knowing that Max would not stop until she knew what was happening, Zack bit out, "This is not Zane. I've just got off the phone with the real Zane. So, the question still remains; who are you?" He shook 'Zane' roughly.

Max stood stock still beside him; her eyes pinned on 'Zane' in shock. And then when she registered what Zack had said, her defensive instincts kicked in visibly.

"Who are you?" she asked, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"How the hell should I know? You were the ones who told me I'm Zane!" 'Zane' rasped, still trying to escape from Zack's grip. "Let me go, man!"

His face contorted with disgust, Zack released him and shoved him, sending 'Zane' sprawling to the ground. Zack could not believe how thoroughly he had been duped. 'Zane's weird behavior should have alerted him, but Zack had not caught on to the game. First the hospital and then, the tracer. For all he knew, 'Zane' might still have something else up his sleeves.

"What are we going to do now?" Max asked, turning her questioning eyes to Zack.

"We're leaving him here," Zack said tightly. He had no intention of exposing him and Max any further. As it was, the spy already knew more about them that he should.

'Zane' stared at him in shock. "We're in the middle of nowhere. You're just going to leave me here?"

"Should we care?" Max asked with a bored expression.

"Hell, I don't even know who I am! So how could I have known about the tracer or whatever else you guys are accusing me of?" he yelled desperately.

Zack stared at Zane thoughtfully as doubts assailed him. His brain was telling him that 'Zane' was a traitor after all he had done. But something deep inside told Zack that 'Zane's behavior did not seem to fit the pattern. Zack was not sure what to believe.

"The point is, how do we know that you're not pretending?" Zack asked eyeing 'Zane' critically.

"Because I'm not!" 'Zane' yelled in frustration, looking back and forth between Max and Zack.

Max rolled her eyes. "Well, forgive us for not believing you."

"I think I know what we can do," Zack said thoughtfully. He had come to the conclusion that if 'Zane' was pretending, then he was a hell of a good actor. And at some point, he was bound to slip up.

But if 'Zane' was innocent, then leaving him here in the middle of nowhere would be like giving him a death sentence. Lydecker would no doubt retrieve him at some point, but when? Not to mention that when Lydecker got hold of him, Zack had no doubt that 'Zane' would be send to psy-ops for what Manticore would perceive as mission failure, never mind that 'Zane' had no idea what the mission was.

And if he had really lost his memory, what harm could he do to two X5s by himself?

Max's voice brought Zack out of his thoughts. "What are you thinking? What are we going to do?" she asked.

Zack shot her a suspicious look. Was she actually asking him for his opinion? That's definitely a first, he thought in amusement. Max would have normally just charge ahead with complete disregard of what he said, or maybe that was just when it came to her other siblings and her personal life.

Outwardly he said, "Trust me on this."

The motel they had found was small, but thankfully they had a double room available. The owner had looked at them suspiciously when Max came in, followed by Zack who had an unconscious 'Zane' in his arms. A few flirtatious lines from Max later, the owner had forgotten about the two males and had handed over the keys to her with a cheesy grin plastered on his face.

Max grinned inwardly when she noted the irritated look Zack had on his face at her antics. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, Max knew that she was getting under his skin. His response to her outrageous flirting with another man told her that much.

Unlocking the door and pushing it open, Max entered first followed by Zack and his bundle. Almost instantly, Max made a beeline for the bathroom, sighing appreciatively when she found that there was hot water in the taps.

"Great, leave me here alone with the enemy…" she heard Zack mutter over the sound of hot water hitting the bath tub. Grinning, she shook her head as she pushed the door shut. She knew that Zack could more than handle the unconscious transgenic. After all, he had been able to knock 'Zane' out cold even when 'Zane' had been fully conscious and fighting back.

When the water finally filled up, Max stripped and sank into the bath with a loud sigh. If only she could do this everyday, she thought wistfully, twirling her fingers in the hot water. But she knew that it was impossible. First, the utilities in the apartment she shared with Kendra was nowhere near functional, which meant that she had to manually boil buckets of water on the stove before she could actually have a bath. Sometimes it just was not worth the trouble.

Secondly, the way things were going now, Max had no idea when she would even sleep in a bed, let alone take a bath. She felt thankful that Zack had suggested that they stopped. Even with her shark DNA, she had finally felt the need to sleep, so she could not imagine how Zack must be feeling at the moment.

Max shook her head slightly, a small smile on her face. Outwardly, no one could tell that Zack had not slept for the last three days. He had been good at hiding it, but Max had seen the telltale signs. His eyes were slightly bloodshot and he was more tense than usual.

According to the interrogation lessons that Manticore had forced on them when they were kids, Zack's condition meant that his defences should be at a lower level. As she mulled over the thought, another one of Manticore's rules came back to her.

Utilise whatever you can lay your hands on as a weapon to aid your mission…

Max's eyes lit up and her smile grew. She wondered if it would be really, really bad of her to take advantage of the situation.

Zack decided that it was probably best if 'Zane' was restrained. Although his instinct told him that 'Zane' would not try to escape, Zack felt that it was safer for him and Max. Propping 'Zane' up into a chair, Zack pushed the chair to the window and tied 'Zane's wrist to it.

Damn, he had to stop thinking of the guy as 'Zane', Zack thought irritably as he inspected the bonds. The guy needed his own name. Zack supposed that he could discuss it with Max.

What's taking her so long in the bathroom anyway? He thought as he glanced at his watch. She had been in there for half an hour already.

Just as Zack was about to call out to ask what she was doing, a sharp scream followed by a loud thud came from inside the bathroom. His heart-rate picked up at the sound, and without a second thought, he rushed across the room and shoved the bathroom door open.

Confronted with the sight before him, Zack's jaw went slack.

Max was sitting with her back against the side of the bathtub, her eyes glazed in what appeared to be pain as she clutched her ankle in her hand.

She was clad only in a skimpy towel.

Zack tried to make himself move. To get out of the bathroom before he did something stupid, but his feet seemed fastened to the floor. His eyes travelled up from Max's hands which were resting on her ankles, up her shapely legs…

To that skimpy towel which just covered her apex of her thighs and her breast.

Zack swallowed hard as his mind wandered into a rather disturbing direction. Desperately, he tried to stop those thoughts before his entire mind was taken over.

"Zack?" her voice called out, thankfully yanking him out of his thoughts.

His eyes snapped to her questioning ones. Clearing his throat, he said gruffly, "You okay, Max? I thought I heard something." Way to go, Zack. You sounded really unaffected there, an irritating voice inside him mocked. Carry on like that and she'll find out exactly how affected you are, it continued.

Looking pained, she said, "I slipped and I think I twisted my ankle."

Zack gritted his teeth, annoyed at himself. Max was hurting and he was having insane thoughts about what he wanted to do with those exposed bits of her. Forcing himself to keep his eyes above her neck and below her knees, skipping all the parts in between, he knelt down beside her.

Tentatively laying a hand on her right ankle, he pressed down on a few spots. He forcefully clamped down on his reaction as his fingers touched her skin and asked, "Does it hurt much here?"

Nodding, Max replied, "A little, but I'll survive. It's no big deal. I think I just need to rest for a while. Can you help me up?"

Zack tensed visibly. Helping her up would mean touching her. Zack did not know how long he could keep his reactions in check, especially considering how run down he felt. Resisting his feelings and his body's wayward reaction for Max was much more difficult than he thought it was going to be. But he knew that he had to keep his head in the game. He could not afford to let Max know how he felt. It was just not the right thing to do.

But effort it took to resist it might just kill him.

"Zack?" Max's voice interrupted his thoughts for the second time in minutes. "What's wrong?" she asked, looking up at him questioningly.

"Nothing," he said. Stop it, Zack. She has no idea what's going on and you'll keep it that way, he scolded himself as he stood up.

Trying to keep from touching her too much, he held out his hands for hers. When she raised her hands, he did not avert his eyes fast enough to avoid seeing how her movement caused the towel to sag a little between her breasts. Zack stifled a groan.

Grasping her hands tightly, he pulled her up to her feet.

He realised with horror that he had applied too much force in the action when Max shot up and tumbled against him, pushing him back to the wall. His back flat against the wall, his arms went around Max to hold her steady. This time he could not keep his groan escaping as he felt Max's breasts pressing against him. He needed to get them out of this position before he embarrassed himself.

The apology which he had prepared to utter died prematurely on his lips when he looked down to see Max gazing at him with those melting chocolate brown eyes. His mouth went dry as his eyes travelled down to her very inviting parted lips.

Zack knew that what he wanted to do was foolish, but his mind seemed to have completely deserted his body.

Unable to help himself, he lowered his head slowly until he could feel Max's soft warm breath on his lips. The conflicting emotions inside him continued to war, but when his lips touched hers, everything else faded away. All he could think of was how good she felt against him.

Deepening the kiss, he snaked his arms around her to pull her closer. She responded like a dream, he thought in awe as he rubbed circles against her bare back. Her soft moans sent tingles up his spine. He felt so drugged with arousal that he could not form a single coherent thought.

A loud thud and a series of muted giggles coming from the corridor outside their room jarred him rudely out of his haze. Eyes glazed with desire, he looked down at Max to see her looking equally dazed. Then slowly, his brain began to function.

And his panic began to set in.

Shit, what have I done? He thought frantically as he tried to maintain a calm facade. Now, you're in for it, Zack. When Max realises what you've done, she's going to hate you!

"Uh…Max, that's… What I mean to say is…" he stumbled on his words as he tried to avoid looking at Max. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, "Look, I'm sorry. I don't know how that happened."

Giving him an enigmatic look, Max's lips curved into a smile. "It's no biggie, Zack. Don't worry about it," she said softly.

Zack stilled at her words, and then frowned as he took in her expression. Why did she look like that? So…satisfied? His internal alarm bells went off. She looked exactly like she had looked just before she got on behind him on her bike earlier that day. What was she up to, he thought suspiciously.

Rearranging his face into some resemblance of calm, he asked carefully, "You're not mad at me?"

Max shook her head slowly. "Nope."

Zack was confused at her apparent nonchalance. "Why not?"

Max stared meaningfully at him. "Why do you think, Zack?"

Zack's breath caught in his throat. Was Max flirting with him? Max? Flirting? What's going on? Or maybe he was just seeing things. Outwardly he said in a guarded tone, "Max, what are you doing?"

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a cheeky grin. "Just had to check something out."

Zack could not believe that Max practically admitted doing it on purpose. From her reaction to the entire thing, she was just thinking of this as some sort of game, no doubt. A small twinge of hurt lodged itself in his chest. Not wanting to analyse too much why he had felt hurt instead of relieved, Zack compressed his lips in a tight line. There was no way he was going to play this game with her.

Sternly, he said, "This is not funny, Max. You cannot play around with these sorts of things. Especially not with me. I'm your CO!"

"Who says I'm playing?" Max said seriously as she trailed a finger down his chest, her eyes not leaving his.

Zack caught her hand before it could reach his waist, taking a deep breath to tamp down on his desire which flared again at her touch. "I'm not joking. Stop it."

"Is that an order?"

"Yes, it is!"

"In which case, I think I'll just ignore it," Max said, her eyes twinkling as she pressed herself closer to him.

Zack groaned. She was going to be death of him. Forcefully holding her away from him, he said, "Max, don't do this."

She gave him an assessing look before stepping away from him, not saying another word.

Zack suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of loss as she walked to the door. "Max?" he called out softly. Damn, was she upset? Did she think that he had rejected her?

Who wouldn't? You DID reject her, the annoying voice in his head pointed out.

Looking at him over her shoulders, she said, "Yeah?"

"It's for the best. Things are already complicated as it is," Zack said, trying to explain.

"Well, I suppose I should just forget it and move on," she said, walking out of the door without another backward glance.

Staring at the empty doorway, Zack frowned at her choice of words. Move on?

Move on to what?

Or move on to who?

Zack groaned, hitting his palm against the bathroom wall in frustration.

t.b.c.

A/N: I don't know about you guys, but I'm beginning to feel very sorry for Zack! Please review and let me know what you think of this chapter.