Rating: PG

Genre: Romance/Drama

Pairing: M/A

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Dark Angel and I have no money so suing me would be pointless.

Summary: You can't control what you hear; you can only pretend its not being said. How will Max cope when something becomes too real to ignore? M/A (as if I'd write anything else)

Chapter 9

The day dragged on, long minutes stretched into painfully long hours as Alec waited for some news from Lyphid. To combat the unbearably slow passage of time Alec tried to keep himself busy. He began to multitask like no transgenic had attempted to multitask before, just to keep his mind off other things. He holed himself up in his office only catching a glimpse of the outside world when Biggs came in to offer coffee. No one came up to disturb him otherwise, a fact he also attributed to his friend Biggs. He was grateful for the small bit of peace he was allowed, until of course it was destroyed by the only person who couldn't care less about peace. He came barging with a shotgun slung over one shoulder and billowing smoke.

"The wheeled wonder is on the video phone." Mole grumbled "The four-eyed pain in my ass won't go until he speaks to Max." Alec sighed running his hands through his hair.

"What did you tell him?"

"I said that the queen bee was busy, but that just sent the moron into a flap." Alec stretched back in his chair sighing more heavily. "Apparently I'm not trust worthy." The overgrown lizardman growled stamping out him cigar stub on Alec's desk adding to the innumerable scars and stains it already had. "You'd better talk to him before I make him a casualty of war."

Alec smirked at the thought. He got up and patted Mole on the back as he made his way out of the room. His muscles protested as he moved in what felt like for the first time for days. From the doorway to his office he could already see Logan's impatient face made almost comically round by his proximity to the camera in front of him. Alec had been sure that Dix had set it up that way on purpose. Alec approached the observation deck where the video phone was set-up, praying that this wouldn't take long.

"Logan buddy, how's it going?" Logan looked annoyed but then Alec's often overtly friendly welcomes always seemed to have that effect on him.

"Alec..." was all the welcome he gave in reply, "Where's Max?"

"What, no 'hello'? no 'nice to see you, how are things'? no small talk?" Alec asked dropping casually into a nearby chair and putting his feet up. His demeanour the perfect image of nonchalance. "If I didn't know you better I'd swear you didn't like me."

"Small talk? when do we ever do that?" Logan wasn't in the mood for games obviously Mole had already exhausted most of his patience which had never really amounted to much. "Where's Max?" Alec shook his head.

"Not here." He said coolly gesturing around him as if giving evidence. "She's ... umm ... busy."

"Well I need to talk to her."

"Oh, and no one makes you wait." Alec bit off a little less coolly than he had intended. Logan smirked, or was it a sneer.

"You've changed your tune, if I didn't know you better Alec, I'd swear you didn't like me." Alec levelled Logan with a measured look.

"I like you Logan, I just don't know why."

"Where is she?" Alec rubbed the back of his neck.

"She can't come to the phone right now, she's kinda incapacitated." This was obviously the wrong thing to say as it only agitated Logan further, teasing out his paranoia.

"Why? What happened? What's going on? Is she ok? Does she need me to come down there?"

"No!" Alec knew that it was selfish, but if there was something that he was sure of it was that under no circumstances should they induce Logan to come to Terminal City. To have him sat at her bedside, having him there lording over them, making big speeches and sad eyes. No, that was the last thing he needed. "She's in containment, she's gone into heat. Believe me, there is nothing you can do for her." The lies spilled easily from Alec's lips, as did their double meaning, although Logan appeared oblivious to it. Mole and Dix exchanged looks in the background intrigued and somewhat amused by the way things were developing. Neither one was particularly fond of Logan or his interfering ways and so felt no need to intervene.

"Oh." Logan had blanked, "When did...?" but before he could finish he was interrupted by someone shouting for Alec from somewhere at the other side of the room, far outside Logan's current field of vision. Alec turned quickly to see Jab standing at the door. At that moment Logan became obsolete. Alec got up and started towards Jab.

"Mole, Biggs." He called without taking his eyes off Jab as he crossed the room, "You're in charge."

Biggs nodded, and Mole smirked cheerfully.

"Yes sir." he called with a mock salute, then he turned his attention back to Logan. "Sorry Joe Nobody, but you're under my jurisdiction now." And with that he disconnected to com. devise. "Ah, that felt good."

Alec and Jab walked together across Terminal City's main quad and over to the Med centre in relative silence. Alec had pounded Jab with questions until it was obvious that he was just a messenger sent to retrieve Alec. Alec steamed on at quite a pace, and being only half his size Jab had a hard time keeping up with him. He went straight to Max's room expecting the worst but he was headed off by Lyphid and Lymph before he could go in.

"How is she?" Alec asked immediately.

"She's doing better." Lyphid opened a door to their left and gestured for Alec to go inside. "But there's something you need to see." Alec tried to read the two blank faces for a sign of whether what he was about to find out was good news or bad, all the time knowing that the task was entirely pointless. They gathered in the next room which was set-up as a rudimentary kind of lab full of equipment salvaged from the old Advanced Recombinant Genetics building.

"You'd better sit down." Lymph suggested and then forced Alec down on to a stool. The medical team had always had a rough bedside manner that Alec had never cared for.

"So what you got for me?"

"Well there's good news and bad news," Lyphid started "You'll have to decide which is which. We have been taking blood samples from her periodically and have found something interesting. Her immune system has gone into overdrive. Something happened to trigger a process that is slowly and systematically neutralising the biological warfare agent that she had been carrying." Alec's eyes widened at the revelation.

"She's cured!"

"Not yet but it seems to be going that way." Lyphid finished.

"We don't know a huge amount about the virus," Lymph started picking up where his partner had left off, "But we know that the agent is activated by intimate contact with the target, so it would make sense that a similar sort of contact would deactivate it." Alec gaped at the two medics in front of him trying to piece it all together.

"Her high temperatures, cramps and dizziness are all side effects of the neutralisation process. The power of her own immune system is being harnessed to destroy the virus it had been harbouring over the last year. The deactivation agent was in you all along, we ran tests on the blood sample you gave us and there is no doubt about it."

"But," Alec frowned, although it all made sense something didn't quite add up, "But we've kissed before why is this only happening now?" The two medics almost comically raised an eyebrow each at him simultaneously.

"When?"

"A few days ago, she went into heat." Alec thought back to the moment when they were stood outside the containment facility in the rain. "We got to containment just as things were starting to get ... difficult. We were in trouble until it started to rain and that cooled us off."

"She was in heat?" Lyphid queried, "but she's only mid way through her cycle. We checked, Its standard procedure." Alec's frown deepened.

"But we were all over each other." As soon as the words had left his mouth Alec knew how ridiculous that argument sounded and how truly ridiculous it was considering what he now knew of Max's feelings for him.

"My theory is that the process started but the contact between you was not for long enough, and the sudden change in temperature due to the rain killed it before it could take hold." Alec nodded. So many thoughts were buzzing round his head that his voice came out whispery and light.

"So then that was..."

"All you I'm afraid." Lyphid chuckled; it was a strange and uncharacteristic sound for him. Alec sat for a moment just thinking it all through. The virus was gone so what did that mean for Max and Logan? though the implication that Logan was the sickness and he was the cure, had not escaped him. That incident out in the field that had started at the edge of a forest under the cover of darkness, was all real and not the heat induced madness he had put it down to. But something still bugged him.

"Why me?" Alec thought out loud.

"With Renfro being as sick and twisted as she was, who knows for sure. She probably just put it in the person Max was least likely to kiss; the twin of her psychotic dead brother." Lyphid said levelly.

"I know! I mean who would have thought. Now I owe Biggs fifty bucks."

"Thanks," Alec answered dryly as Lymph just shrugged. "So what now?"

"Now?" The head medic said getting up, "Now you get her out of my ward. She's been complaining ever since she came round." Alec grinned, he was glad to hear that Max was back to her usual self again. If there was anything that could reassure him that she was recovering it was that feisty attitude of hers. "So long as she stays bedridden for the next two days, she's all yours."

A/N: hmm, The last instalment was a bit heavy duty but I'm not sure about this one either. I need reviews! Help me out please. xxx