Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel or any characters featured in either of the seasons.
With Ben In Between
A.N: Thanks for the review! Keep them coming please!
"Alec?" Alec's eyes snapped open and stared at the person on him.
"Max?" He asked shocked. Sure enough a very pregnant Max was on her side, on top of him. She held a shock look that likely mirrored his own. Once he was able to stand up and help Max up, the two seemed to be as a sudden stage of silence, which was a rarity for them. "So…Max what are you doing here in Europe?" Alec finally asked as he helped her sit down at a nearby table at the café. He kept looking everywhere but her face…and stomach. Hands, his hands then hers, but that made him want to hold her so he resorted to the table, no connection to Max, safe.
"I'm here with Logan, he's here on some business." Max answered smiling slightly noticing Alec's distant and obvious discomfort. "So you live here in the city?"
"Yeah, about 5 blocks that way," he said pointing in the direction towards his apartment. "How you long you here for?"
"Uh till the baby is due actually," Max said smiling and rubbing her hand around her stomach. "Logan has a lot of business to do here so we're just going to wait it out and fly back to Seattle after the birth." Alec nodded and smiled; she looked beautiful and happy.
"So what are you doing right now?" Alec asked shrugging his shoulders up and stuffing his hands into his pockets of his jeans.
"Just enjoying what little energy I have," Max replied taking a sip of her drink. "What about you? Where's Vanessa?"
"Uh…" Alec rubbed the back of his neck, a habit that told Max something had changed since they had last seen each other. "We just broke up."
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bring things up."
"It's ok, I ended things."
"Why? You guys seemed to really connect in Seattle," Max offered trying to sort out the raging emotions she was feeling. 'Damn hormones!' She cursed inwardly while she tried to stomp everything she was feeling. 'Be numb! Be numb! Damnit!'
"Uh," Alec leaned his elbow on the table and ran his hand through his hair. "She was cheating on me with some guy, I found out and ended it." Alec looked at Max's shocked face, "it's all go though. I was tired of being asked if she looked fat or what color of pink looked best." Max couldn't help but laugh at the little jab as he made a face of disgust at the mention of pink. 'He always hated the color,' she thought as she felt herself begin to relax in his company.
From there the two talked, not about their past together, Ben or Seattle. They just talked for the first time in a long time, and it was refreshing. Likely would've stayed there for most of the day if Alec hadn't realized he had somewhere to get to. "Hey I have to stop by a place and pick something up. You wanna walk with me? It's just a few blocks from here." Nodding Max started to stand up, but found it a little more difficult than planned. Seeing her difficulty, Alec took one of her hands into his and wrapped the other around her waist, hoisting her to her feet in no time.
"So where we off to?" Max asked as they walked away from the café.
"Uh, a camera store."
"Taking up photography?" Max joked.
"No, I found some old rolls of film and thought I'd see what's on them." Alec explained as they reached the little storefront. Opening the door Max walked inside and was quickly surrounded by cameras and machines to enlarge pictures.
"So you don't what on them?"
"Actually no, they aren't mine." Alec answered as the clerk walked from the back of the store and saw him.
"Ah, here for those pictures?" He asked in a thick accent. From under the counter, the older man pulled out several thick manila envelopes. "I worked with the film as much as I could. Some weren't so lucky; other's not too bad. Need to take better care of you film young man," the clerk joked handing the folders to Alec. "You can take them to a station and view them before you pay."
"Thanks," Alec and Max walked over to a viewing station in the far corner of the room where two chairs resided with it. After they both say, Alec felt himself start to breath a little erratic. 'Another step in meeting who my brother became,' he thought opening the top envelopes, but didn't pull the pictures out. "Max…" Max turned and looked at him with a questioning look. "You should open these," pushing the folders in front of her Alec sat back and bit his lip.
"Why? They're yours Alec."
"No they aren't. I found them in an old box of Ben's, I was going to send whatever turned out to you." Alec whispered, afraid to see what her reaction was. When he finally built the guts to look at her she was lightly running her finger over the paper and had a thoughtful look on his face.
"It's funny, no matter what he's always with us, isn't he?" She asked, giving a small smile, this confused Alec. "He was your brother Alec, and he was someone very special to me. I think we both earned the right to look at these photos of whatever they may be. How bout we look at them together and go from there?"
Alec wasn't sure what to think of Max's assessment of the situation, and he didn't know what to say to it either. So to save a good thing gone wrong, Alec nodded and took the envelope and pulled the pictures out. Max saw the first image first and couldn't help but let out a small gasp. It was of her with some friends of Ben's, it was from early in their relationship. The following pictures were of friends, random people Ben encountered and so on.
Not knowing any of the people in the picture, Alec was effected in a different way. He was seeing a part of his brother for the first time. Every so often Max explained who was depicted in the picture or explained the events of the day leading up to the picture. Once they were finished with the first envelope Alec decided that he would just pay for it all and view the pictures, with Max, in private since this was going to be a very emotional rollar-coaster for the both of them. "Let's go somewhere else and look at them," he suggested as Max placed the pictures in their package, "I'm going to go pay for them and we can go look at them somewhere else. I think this place is a little to open to go through this in the open." Max smiled and wiped a tear from her eye, nodding her head she hugged the stack of packages to her chest. 'He always could read how I was feeling,' Max thought to her self as he helped her up and left to go pay for the pictures.
"So where should we go? My hotel with Logan is clear across town, we could go there," Max asked as they walked the way they had come from before.
"My apartment isn't too fare, we could go there and I'll give you a ride back to your hotel." Max smiled and nodded; weaving her arm through his she looked ahead of them to see where they walked. She didn't see Alec's face go from a small smile to total shock, and then to a shit-eating grin. She also didn't see his eyes flash like they use to all the time, like she always loved them too.