She'd been watching them lately. She didn't want to admit it to anyone, especially not herself, but she'd been staring. Staring hard.

Of course it didn't help that they'd been doing supply runs together, jobs with heavy lifting and zip-lining and repelling and climbing – all things that flexed them.

Max thought about his years at Manticore and what he must have gone through: years of hard, physical training, missions with nigh-impossible tasks, probably lost a member or two of his unit, years of saluting and dropping to give 'em twenty…

And maybe, she thought, a little bit of time on his elbows in someone's soft arms, making love…

Stop it, Max scolded herself. But before she could continue, she'd already gone back to the fantasy, and readopted that far away look in her eyes.

And now all she could do was stare at them while he lectured the room on the dangers of the next mission. She wasn't even aware of the words coming out of his mouth. He just looked so authoritative and in control.

Suddenly, every pair of eyes in the room was trained on her. She shook her mind out of the delirium. "What?"

Alec looked at her expectantly.

"What?" she asked again.

"I just asked if you had anything to add before the Bravo team heads out." Alec folded his arms across his chest.

If his arms weren't bad enough, she thought, staring at the smooth cotton tee hugging his Pecs. She unconsciously licked her lips.

"Guess not," Alec said, turning back to the team. "Just be careful, guys."

As the transgenics and transhumans shuffled out of the Situation Room – as it had come to be known – Max hung back in a kind of trance as Alec gathered the few maps that had been passed around.

Max was still quiet and still staring.

"Somethin' on your mind, Max?"

Again, she shook herself out of the sexy thoughts and focused her attention on him. "Nope," was all she could manage as she raised up out of her seat and left.

Six hours later, she found herself at his open door, with a shirtless, bed-headed Alec standing in front of her, a confused look on his tired face. His eyes were barely open. "Max," he said, though it sounded more like a question.

Max closed the distance between them and pushed the door knob with her hands behind her back, until it clicked. She reached out and placed her palms on his arms, squeezing him gently with her fingertips and drawing him to her in an embrace. He immediately scooped her into a squeeze. With those arms, she thought, smiling.

Alec buried his face at her neck and inhaled deeply.