Chapter 3

The sun was sinking slowly towards the horizon, turning the sky a deep shade of orange tinged with pinks and purples. The evening news warbled from the television in Max's motel room as he contemplated his dinner plans. He wasn't thrilled by the choices on offer in Midtown and so he'd stalled long enough that it was nearly seven o'clock by the time he put on his jacket and walked out the door. His Mercedes was rather extravagant compared to the beaten up Fords and Toyotas that were parked under the other carports. There was a dark blue BMW out the front of the unit opposite his that drew his eye as he reached for the handle of his own car. It was the only other vehicle in the vicinity that looked like it didn't belong.

The door of the unit in question opened before Max could slide into the driver's seat and he was suddenly very grateful that he hadn't gone out to dinner early. Kara Danvers stepped outside into the fading light, shutting the door behind her. She unlocked the BMW and was about to climb in when a familiar voice called her name.

'Kara Danvers,' Max said, strolling towards her with his arms opened wide, 'what a pleasant surprise.'

'Oh, you've got be to kidding me,' Kara groaned, jamming her hands on her hips. 'What the hell are you doing here Max?'

Kara hated it when Max used her real name. It still unnerved her that he knew her identity and that smug smile was only infuriating her more.

'I could ask you the same question, but since you asked first, I'm here on business. Lucrative, of course. Investors love me, you see.'

'Right,' Kara snorted. 'Now can I help you with something or do you just exist to be a pain in my ass?'

'I have much higher goals than that, I assure you. Now is Alex around? My favourite agent hasn't been returning my calls.'

'I wonder why,' Kara said sarcastically. She glanced at the motel room door, back at Max and then at the BMW, biting her lip. Max could see her weighing the decision to let him in. Eventually she said, 'You're lucky I'm hungry.' Max didn't understand the reference, but Kara waved vaguely at the door. 'She's inside. I'm going to get dinner. Don't expect any.'

Kara climbed into her car and Max waved cheerily as she drove off. Perfect, he thought. He let himself in, shutting the door softly behind him and turned to take in the living area that was almost exactly the same as his own room. He glanced around, poking his head into the kitchen, but finding it empty. Acting like he owned the place, Max strolled into the little hallway that was dotted with three doors, two open and one closed. The first open door was a laundry which he barely glanced at. The door at the end of the hall was slightly ajar so he knocked loudly on it before entering, hoping that Alex was in a good mood today. There was no reply so he stepped inside and looked around for her, but was again greeted by silence.

A small suitcase sat at the foot of the bed, its lid closed. A pair of blue jeans and a red knitted sweater lay discarded next to it. A mobile phone was on top of a book on the bedside table. Max couldn't see the title from where he stood. The covers on the bed hadn't been disturbed yet and they were tucked so tightly underneath the mattress that it looked like it was about to burst.

Max shrugged to himself, figuring that this was Kara's room and that Alex must be in the one behind the closed door back down the hall. He was just about to leave when a door to his left that he hadn't noticed opened and Alex Danvers emerged wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped tightly around her lithe body.

Max stared, eyes suddenly wide. His heart stopped. She hadn't noticed him standing there, half hidden by the door, but he couldn't make his feet move to leave before she did notice. Kara was either playing a cruel joke on him or she didn't know that Alex had gone to have a shower.

His lips parted ever so slightly as she walked over to the bed to pick up her phone. Her hair was slightly damp from the shower and her bare feet padded softly on the thin carpet. Her skin looked warm and soft against the bright white of the towel. Max's eyes trailed along her exposed shoulders, down the curves beneath the towel to her legs. He thought briefly of a diamond – stunning, but with a strength that belied its appearance. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Until she looked up and she became the most dangerous thing he'd ever seen.

The phone fell out of her hands as Alex jumped backwards in fright, clutching the towel to her chest and instinctively reaching for a gun that wasn't there. She certainly hadn't been expecting anyone to be hovering in her doorway, not Kara and least of all Max. They stared at each other in horror; Alex horrified that she was practically naked, Max horrified that he'd been so captivated by her that he'd allowed himself to get caught.

'What are you doing here?' she yelled when she found her voice. 'GET OUT!'

'I-I'm…' Max stammered, attempting to apologise but only making it worse.

'OUT!' Alex yelled again.

Max nodded and dashed out of the doorway, down the hall and back into the living area. The silence was deafening as he sat down on the couch in a daze. He had not been expecting that. The image of Alex checking her phone, the towel folded tightly just to the right of her breast, danced across his vision. His mouth went dry.

He was quickly brought crashing back to reality by the sound of angry footsteps. Alex stormed into the room, fully clothed now, her face like thunder.

'What the hell are you doing here Max?' She seethed. 'And you'd better have a good answer or I will take great pleasure in strangling you!'

Max raised his hands in a placating gesture. 'I didn't mean to walk in on you. I'm sorry.'

'Why were you lurking in my freaking doorway then?'

'I wasn't lurking,' Max began with a nervous laugh, but Alex wasn't having any of it.

'What are you doing here?' She tapped her foot on the floor, hands on her hips. Max wondered if the aliens that Alex had captured felt like he did right now under her furious gaze. He was glad that she didn't have a gun.

'Business meeting,' Max began, 'I've got a business meeting. I'm staying in the room across from here. I saw you and Kara this afternoon in the main street, figured you were here on a DEO assignment.'

Alex's eyes narrowed as she thought back to their investigation into the first lead of the case. Helena Dodd had gushed about a handsome man from the newspaper which had made Alex suspicious immediately, but the pieces fell into place now that Max was here. That was just how her luck worked.

'You wouldn't happen to know a Marcus Gregson, would you Max?' She hissed. Max bit his lip and tried to look innocent. It didn't work. 'Oh, for god's sake.' Alex shook her head in exasperation when she took his silence to mean he most definitely did know a Marcus Gregson.

'Did you really expect that you could just wash your hands of me after Myriad?' Max asked with slight anger in his voice. 'As if I could just forget everything that happened?'

'We moved on, Max,' Alex shot back. 'We were lucky to survive it and we had to move on and make sure nothing like that could ever happen again. You're not DEO and I'm sure you've got a company to run.'

'Alex, I want to help. I don't want to sit on the sidelines anymore, not when I know that there's more I can do. I thought Lord Technologies was the best way that I could help people, but it's just a small part. You can't honestly tell me that the DEO wouldn't benefit from my skills.'

Alex stared at him for a moment as she tried to work out where this was going. The thing that unsettled her most was that Max was being genuine. She could see the brightness in his eyes and noticed that his hair was slightly messier than usual, as if he'd been in a rush when he'd gotten dressed. Did he feel as lost and restless as she had felt before coming out here on her first proper mission since Myriad?

'Are you asking to join the DEO?' Alex asked eventually. 'Because that's not how it works and I'm pretty sure that Hank would not stop at a polite 'no' if you did ask.'

Max let out a huff and curled his tongue over his bottom lip. Arguing with Alex was impossible and Max was not a man used to losing.

'The alien you're looking for works at Midtown High,' he said abruptly.

'What?'

'He's an old man, probably a librarian or something. Wears beige cardigans.'

'Wait a second,' Alex snapped, sitting down on the couch next to him. 'Did Helena tell you that?'

'Worked it out on my own,' Max replied with a shrug. 'Wasn't hard. Hank's wasting your brain Alex, you're much too intelligent to be running this job.'

Alex pursed her lips. It frustrated her when Max complimented her intelligence because most men couldn't care less whether she was smart or not. In fact, her intelligence often intimidated them and drove them away, but not Max. It was part of the reason he was so intrigued by her and it was also one of the few things that Alex did like about him, that he saw her as more than just a woman to flirt with. Although he did still do his fair share of flirting.

'And you want in on this job that's below me, is that it?' Alex asked.

Max nodded with a smile, the first hint of cheekiness that he'd shown since he'd arrived. That was more like Max.

'Come on Alex, partnering up will be just like old times.' He gave her a wink and crossed his fingers.

Seconds passed as Alex wrestled with what to do. Eventually she just sighed.

'Fine. I can't believe I'm doing this, but fine Max, you can help us find the goddamn alien.'

Max grinned in triumph. He usually got what he wanted, but this was somehow more satisfying.

A knock at the door startled them and Alex glared at him again.

'Not a word to Kara about…about before,' she threatened.

'Wouldn't dream of it.' Max nodded seriously as Alex got up to let Kara in, his lips twitching as he reflected on the way his heart had flipped when Alex had walked out of her bathroom in just a towel. His eyes unconsciously followed her hips as she walked across the room. She had the brain and the looks. Was there anything about Alex Danvers that wasn't attractive?

A voice in his head whispered, 'She threw you in a cell once. She still doesn't like you much.' He pushed it away and told it to shut up. That was months ago and it had been his fault. They'd made progress since then. Hey, she'd agreed to let him join in on this mission so she must like him a little bit right?

He waited patiently as Alex quickly explained the situation to a flabbergasted Kara who was carrying four pizza boxes – one for Alex, three for her as it turned out.

'You must be joking,' Kara muttered under her breath as she dumped her dinner on the table.

'No jokes,' Max called happily. 'How does Agent Lord sound?'

Alex rolled her eyes before relenting and asked, 'Do you want some dinner or what?'

'Alex!' Kara protested as Max joined them at the table.

'Kara, there's four pizzas.'

'Alien metabolism, remember?'

Max watched them argue with amusement. He was about to intervene when Alex tore three slices from one of Kara's pizzas and three from her own, putting them on the lid of her pizza box so that it rested between them like a conjoined plate.

'There,' she said with finality.

Kara sulked, but didn't complain. Three slices was better than a whole pizza she supposed.

'Alex, as much as I appreciate the generosity, you don't have to give me your dinner.'

'Oh just eat it, Max,' she said, taking a bite.

They ate in silence for a minute or so and Max couldn't help thinking that there was something enjoyable about sitting next to Alex whilst Kara glared at him from across the table.

'So,' he said eventually, 'what's our next move?'

Kara rolled her eyes at Max's 'go team' attitude, but Alex turned to him and contemplated the question.

'Investigate the school library I guess. Talk to the principal, that kid who saw the lights. This man in the beige cardigan that you're so sure about.'

'What about your business meeting?' Kara asked pointedly.

'I'll reschedule,' Max shrugged. 'It was going to be boring anyway.'

The conversation continued in ebbs and flows, and Kara was slightly annoyed that Alex seemed so comfortable chatting with Max about things she didn't understand. Once she'd finished eating, she excused herself and went to bed which made Alex feel a bit guilty. Max took the hint, surprisingly.

'I should go,' he said, standing up. 'It's a long walk back to my motel room after all.'

'We'll head out early tomorrow,' Alex replied, walking Max to the door. 'Get to the school by 7:30, before all the kids get there.'

She opened the door and Max stepped outside into the inky darkness of night, the only light coming from behind Alex, draping her face in shadow.

'Synchronise watches?'

'Really Max?'

'You know Agent Danvers,' Max said quietly, taking a step closer so Alex could hear him, 'towels look very good on you.'

He winked and walked away before Alex could hit him, but she was very glad that it was dark and that he couldn't see her blushing furiously. She slammed the door shut with exasperation. Why was her face so hot? Stupid Max, she thought as she stalked away to her room, her heart doing tiny little flips that she really did not approve of. She pictured him standing in her doorway staring at her, his mouth open ever so slightly. So much for an easy few days in Midtown.