Disclaimer: James' brainchild...I modified it ;)

A/N: Alrighty, chap 3 is up. Have fun!

Funeral for That Which Never Was

Chapter 3: Beating the Dead

And if this is giving up, then I'm giving up

If this is giving up, then I'm giving up, giving up on love, on love.

At Crash.

"Max, I thought I got you a cell phone?" Alec glared evilly at her beeper as it buzzed and vibrated in circles between them at the bar.

"You did, and thanks by the way. But be glad that I didn't tell Logan the number, much less that I have one at all. I am. The only people who know my cell number are you and OC, and that's the way I want to keep it." Max glared just as vilely at the electronic contraption, her chin propped up in her up-turned palm, elbow resting on the countertop. The motion and noise stopped, for a moment anyway, and then another call set it off again. Max dropped her fist on the bar with a thud that rattled bottles, releasing a frustrated sigh. Picking up the infuriating object with her left hand, Max glared once more at the number. She dropped her left arm holding the beeper beside her right. Holding the vibrating item in both hands, Max unceremoniously snapped the plastic in two.

Alec raised his eyebrows at her action, but otherwise made no response. It seemed he had seen it coming for a while. "'Bout time." He sat up and swirled the liquid in his glass. Almost as an afterthought, he looked up at Max to see if his words had upset her.

"Damn straight." She said forcefully, lobbing the two halves of the dead beeper in the trash behind the bar.

"So, what's up with you and Loggie-bear, anyway?" Alec suspected that Max had enough, but rather than presume like he usually did, and get his ass kicked in return, he figured he would check with the woman first.

"Nothing." Max sat up, refusing to slouch anymore. The main source of her annoyance had met its overdue end, and she was definitely not in mourning over its loss.

"Nothing?" Alec eyed her. Max usually said a lot that had absolutely no truth to it. The only way that he could tell if she was being honest with him was if he watched her body language. Not a lot of people knew Max's tells, but he did, and that was the only thing that mattered.

"Nothing. Nothing ever was, nothing ever will. That kind of nothing." Max stared at the cracked mirror behind the bar. She actually smiled at her reflection.

Alec had to lean back. He let out an inaudible laugh of surprise. Max had personal confidance—confidance in herself. Since he met her, he hadn't seen much of that confidance, but it was there now, and it seemed to be a permanent feature. "So you told him quits."

"More than quits. I told him it never existed." Max took a slow drink from her beer. "Actually felt good to get it out. Two years of I have no idea what: It was about time I shot the horse he was beating."

"Interesting illustration." Alec frowned at her. She was not acting like the Max he knew. "What's up with you? You aren't usually like this."

"I'm reveling in freedom. Temporary as it is." She sighed heavily. "Sooner or later that sycophant is going to show up out of no where and plead with me to come back into his life." Max set the glass down, amber liquid swaying with the motion. "To tell you the truth, I was kinda psyched by the fact that I actually had the nerve to tell him. I am in an odd state of emotion right now." Max wiped a hand across her face. "If I was an ordinary, I would swear it was PMS. But I'm not, so I can't. It's just….different."

Alec nodded watching her as she explained. "I get it."

Max frowned turning to face the transgenic.

"What? I do. It makes sense to me. You make sense." He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Okay, let me explain that: It's a logical state of confusion. Logan has been around for a while, in your life I mean. You're used to his—uh—constant nagging?" Max nodded, admitting the fact. "Right. So. You're disjointed 'cuz he's not breathing down your neck anymore."

"Yeah. I guess that makes sense."

"'Course it makes sense, it's me."

Max laughed. "Alec. You never make sense."

Alec had never really heard her laugh before. Every other laugh he had heard was only a half-hearted attempt at playing a part for her friends. She had never actually meant it before. This time she did, he could tell. The laughter reached her eyes. Alec smiled at hearing the sound. "Exception to the rule?"

Max shrugged, smirking at his smile. She was tired of talking about it. "Whatever the case, it's over for good." She tipped her head back and gazed at the ceiling, "now I just need to get him to realize it…" Max blew through loose lips. "He doesn't seem to want to let go."

"Max, this is Logan we're talking about. Since when does he give up?" He knew she wanted to stop talking about it, but he also knew that she wasn't finished talking about it yet, regardless of her irritation for the topic. He weighed which was more important and determined that getting all of it out tonight would save both him and everyone else at Jam Pony in the morning when they had to go in to work. "I mean, just look at how he reacted after you were recaptured by Manticore." She lifted her head and looked over at him, a half-cocked expression on her face. "The first thing he actually seriously talked to me about was that night. Don't ask me why…" Max watched him as he steadily grew more uncomfortable. "Maybe he thought I was trying to steal you away or something dumb like that. Idiot. I may be a jerk, but I am not the type of guy to steal another guy's girl. –Anyway, he knew you'd been shot, through the heart. Said he knew you'd died, but didn't believe you had. Spent the next six months 'longing' for you—and I quote."

Max raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. "Is that a fact?" She asked with a bored, detached tone. Max really didn't care.

"Yeah. Made me want to gag…" Alec rushed on, "Anyway, he told me that he never gave up on the idea that he would see you again." He looked at her. "And look what happened. You made it come true." He shook her shoulder. "Max, you came back from the dead."

"Don't remind me." She lifted her head. "Renfro made sure I did." She played with her glass. "Probably would have found some way, even if my brother hadn't died for me. Heh, she probably manipulated him into shooting himself in the head anyway." Max waved a hand, shooing the fact of lesser importance into the background. "At the time, my main thought for getting out of Manticore after my recapture was to protect Logan." Max buried her cheek in her left palm, lifting her beer with her right hand for another drink. "Man, I was deluded." She took another draft from the glass.

"Yeah, but just think," Alec put an arm across her shoulder and spread an arm before them as if painting a scenario for her to picture.

Max set down her beer, she couldn't wait to hear this.

"If you hadn't gotten recaptured and brought back to life, you never would have met me." He could see Max reaching behind him in the cracked mirror behind the bar, so before he got slapped in the back of the head, as was sure to happen given her movements, he continued. "You never would have met Josh, you never would have broken out again, or blown up the facility. Then all of us poor tosses would still be stuck in cages waiting for the beck and call of our trainers." Alec shook his head, a defeated expression layering his sandy features. "But the world would still be hell." He shrugged. "Meh. Ya win some, ya lose some."

"Oh, great philosopher, you have opened my eyes." Max commented dryly, though it was true. Max never really considered how much life was interwoven. Events occurred simply because other events transpired. "And now, I'm gonna go home and take a long, uninterrupted girly bath." She leaned back into Alec's arm, which he hadn't moved. "If I can."

"Okay, okay," Alec complained lifting his arm from her shoulders, "I get the idea. You think I contaminated you and you need to go wash my grime away. But first you need me to move my arm. Is that right?" He was being sarcastic, but inside he felt like that's what she really thought of him sometimes. Always the screw-up, so it would seem. Except tonight. She had talked to him like they were real friends. Not as a random military acquaintance from which she occasionally enlisted help.

"No." Max laughed. "You are not that dirty. Actually, you're usually a pretty clean guy…except for your thoughts, I must admit. I guess the pretty-boy nature stuck, didn't it? I got you out of Manticore, but I still can't seem to get all of Manticore out of you." Max turned to fully look at him. "Ya know something else?" She leaned close to his ear. "I know what you're thinking. And the answer's no. You're not a screw up."

A/N: Ha ha! Expression in triumph. Chapter three is complete. Weee, I'm having fun with this!