If Not Now When Chapter 5: Who slapped Snow White?, a dark angel fanfic

Jade - DA- If Not Now When?

Title: If Not Now When?
Author: Jade
Rating: PG-13 I think a little bit of language
Show: DA
Genre: Angst/Romance
Pairing: M/A ALL the way
Type: WIP
Summary: Alec leaves Seattle. How will everyone react, especially Max?
Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone apart from Storm.

A/N: This is AU as Biggs is alive and well kicking!

A/N 2: It may seem like i'm making Max out to be the devil at first but please just bear with me.

A/N 3: Please Read and Review

Mood Music: Kristian Leontiou 'The Story of My Life' Read Author's Note at the end of the chapter for more info.

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Chapter 5 - Who Slapped Snow White?

6 MONTHS LATER

Location: TC - Max's Office 1500

"Who the hell do you think you are? All pure and selfless Snow White! Just to make it all clear to you Princess, we aren't your damn dwarfs! And Manticore isn't the evil Queen! This isn't some fairytale alright! Look around you no-one has had the best time growing up! But we've all learned to cope. Yes, I will always owe you for getting us out of that hellhole but that doesn't mean I'll be at your back and call all the time. I will tell you when I don't think you are doing something right or when you are behaving like a spoilt little girl who has never had somebody say no to her. If you don't like that… well tough!" Storm shouted with one hand clenched into a fist by her side in an attempt to control her anger.

She had just flipped during one of their many meetings when Alec's name had come up and Max had made a snide comment about his lack of presence. She knew that as soldiers they had to show leadership towards Max so she had kept the lid on her anger till the end of the meeting. The second they were out of the door she had told Max that they needed to talk. When it came to these two women the crowd knew that the word talk was code word for "we're-going-to-shout-at-each-other-till-we-are-both-blue-in-the-face".

The first month after Alec had left there had been a lot of these 'talks' between Max and Storm, but as the months had passed they had declined in number. To the general shock of the public the 'talks' had turned out to be extremely valuable. Storm and Max had actually begun to form a strong relationship with one another. Their friendship was based on honesty. Storm had never been one for tactfulness; she had always said what she felt. Max had been no exception to this. At first Max had hated Storm for this but then she came to rely on it. She was so sick and tired of people walking on eggshells with her; Storm's attitude had come as a breath of fresh air. She had come to value it and depend on it.

Storm had hated the way Max held herself apart from the rest. She had always thought this was because Max thought she was better than the rest because she was an 09'er. During one of their arguments Max had made a slip and had ended up hinting that compared to the other Manticoreans she felt inadequate as she was lacking 10 years worth of training. Storm had been shocked at this admission but as she ran over certain incidents in her mind she had realised that this could infact be true. Having realised the problem Storm had offered to train Max in the things she had missed out on, on the condition that she became "less of a bitch" and quit moaning so much. To her surprise Max had started to laugh and told her that she'd try.

Nowadays there was only one subject that they argued about.

"I can't believe you have the audacity to keep on complaining about Alec taking off the way he did! What did you expect the guy to do! Since we came here and formed TC all you did was give him crap and tell him that he wasn't worth the oxygen he consumed nor the barely palatable stuff you call food he ate!" her grey eyes were becoming nearly black as her iris got larger and larger the more angrier she got.

"Storm that's enough" Biggs said as he walked into the room. He had heard their shouts all the way from his office which had once belonged to Alec. Due to the temper of Max, Alec had chosen to take up a room which was as far away from hers as possible.

"Little Miss Moan-a-lot needs to hear this Biggs and if you dare to stop me I will kick your ass from here to where Alec is right now and knowing him you know you will just get shot the second you arrive at your destination!" shouted Storm her eyes aflame.

"What the hell did they put in the x-5 females genes! I'd rather take that chick on from Terminator 3 then any one of you!"

With that a set of brown eyes and a set of grey eyes looked at him and if the phrase 'if looks could kill' was true Biggs knew he would have already been cremated by now. Oh shit he thought. He realised that the best thing would be to leave them to it and let them sort it out once and for all.

"Ermm …. You know I think I just heard Dix call me. So anyways I should be off on my merry way now. Hi ho, hi ho off to HQ I go."

At the intake of Max's breath Biggs realised what he said. "Hey Max easy now. It's just a figure of speech nothing to do with Snow White. Oh man you're gonna hit me aren't you!"

SMACK!

"Ouch! Fine! I'm gone. I'll send the clean up crew in an hour or so to wash the blood off from the walls"

Biggs just about dodged the stool that was thrown at him and closed the door as he ran out.

"Man I should have come with a zipper or something, it would have been so much better for my health and my life expectancy years!" he drawled as he tried to put as much distance as he could between him and the room.

Once Biggs had left the tension in the room went up a few notches. Both female transgenics were standing as far apart as the room would allow without breaking eye contact.

"Are you done?" asked Max her features all tense.

"Not quite."

"Feel free to pick up where you left off but I think now is my turn." Max stated making the sentence sound more like a challenge then a simple statement.

"He left Storm! He just upped and left! He left us just like that! It wasn't even that difficult for him. He knew how much he was needed here but still he left. You can't make me forget that."

"He just left Seattle Max! God, give the guy a break for once! He is at a different location but he is a part of us. He is still completely devoted to the cause. Think about all those transgenics he gathered up and sent over to us. Think about all the new contacts he made. "

"We had contacts!"

"The terms had never been this good and you know it!"

"Fine! What about everyone he left behind? Huh? What about Josh?"

"Max the only person who has not come into terms with this is you. Josh understands, Biggs understands, I understand. Hell, even Mole understands! It's quite ironic really."

"What's ironic?" asked Max looking puzzled.

"The one person who pushed him away is the one person who is still troubled by his lack of presence."

"I didn't make him go away. He wanted to leave so he left!"

"What the hell did you want the guy to do! You never did anything but give him hell! He did what anyone in his position would have done ages ago!"

"Why now? If he should have left ages ago why now!"

"Have you never heard of the saying 'the straw that broke the camel's back'?. You pushed him too far. You pushed him away. You pushed him away from all he knows! Everyone he cares about and everyone who cares about him! Everything else i can forgive you for but never EVER about the way you have treated him!"

"He deserved it! He lost me the cure. He lost me Logan!"

"Oh my God! Are you still there! That was months ago! Lets be serious here Max if it was gonna work it would have worked cure or no cure. You loved him so much you would have found another way. Life isn't all black and white Princess, it has shades of grey in it too."

"I tried! He was the only person who could do it! Don't you dare tell me I didn't try."

"You tried huh? Then answer this: how come you never asked any of us for help? Huh? Some of us were actually trained specifically for engineering viruses."

"What?" Max looked at Storm knocked back for six.

"You heard me. It was probably one of us who actually put the final touches to your little virus."

"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE EVER TELL ME!"

"'Cos you never asked!"

"I never knew I could!"

"Max you never spent time with any one of us!" she took a deep breath and tried to reason with Max. "It was Alec who did it all. He was the one who united us all. He was the one who spent endless nights coming and talking to us one by one. You were the one people were scared of. Alec was the one we respected. We came to respect you too in the end but it never would have happened if it had not been for Alec vouching for you. Why do you think everyone gave you the cold shoulder when Alec left?"

"I thought you were challenging my authority." replied Max in a hushed tone.

"We could never do that. Max you are alpha we could never challenge your orders. Only Alec can. Alec is alpha male. He is top at the chain of command. Even if Alec had not vouched for you we would still have done whatever you requested but none of us would ever have spoken to you on a personal level. Everyone was still weary of you. You cannot imagine the punishment we were put through when you guys escaped. It was twice as bad for the twins, especially Alec. Manticore realised he was gonna be top dog from an early age and couldn't risk anything going wrong with him. So when we saw Alec being nice to you and talking to you, we did too."

Storm was actually quite surprised that Max had never realised any of this before.

"When he left everyone knew it was because of you and hated you for it. Some still do. You took their C.O. away from them."

"I didn't take him away from anyone."

"Max, tell me honestly now why do you think he left?"

"Because he got bored here."

SMACK!

"What the hell Storm!" asked a shocked Max holding her crimson cheek with her hand. She was too surprised to even think of to retaliate.

"Look honey, someone needs to knock some sense into you and wouldn't ya know it, that someone's gonna be me" Storm replied with her hands on either side of her hips. Deep down Storm was thanking whoever was up there that that Max hadn't decided to strike her back. The transgenic in question was looking at her with an incredulous stare.

"You slapped me." stated Max still gulping like a fish.

"Yeah I noticed that too."

"You actually slapped me."

"Yes I slapped you. You deserved it. Hopefully the little contact between your cheek and my hand has done its trick. Can we move on now?" Storm asked Max with a butter wouldn't melt in her mouth smile.

A/N :

"Story Of My Life" by Kristian Leontiou

You say it was like this
I was torn between 2 worlds
One full of promise
And the truth I knew would hurt
You say I'm no angel
Tryin to put the past behind

So now I try to find
A place to leave all
Memories in my mind
We try, our lives away
Then stumble into the grave
We cry, and still they stay
The past won't go away
The story of my life

See I was just thinkin
Now my life is on the road
The straight and the narrow
On the route that I've been showed
You know its not easy
To try to change your ways