Disclaimer: I own nothing!! Well, I do own stuff, just not Dark Angel

A/N: Here's chapter 8!! Um, it's not as long, but hopefully you like it! Besides, I did two chapters in one day! Although only cause I've been home sick all day. I hate being sick! I'm gonna try and get this story finished quickly though, so I don't have to leave you hanging during my exams.

Chapter 8: The Cure

'So, we're clear about the plan?' Alec asked as he and Bree made their way towards one of the lesser used sewer tunnels out of TC. Getting out of TC was no easy feat, Max had made sure of that on the first day. They had doubled their security, as much to keep people out as to keep them in, and they were both on constant alert for any movement. If someone caught them and Max found out, they were both dead meat. And she'll want to know why we were leaving. Of course. Alec sighed. If Max was one tough nut to crack, then her security system was even harder. Bree looked at him.

'Yep. Get into the vault, you get what you need for this cure thing – I still don't understand why you haven't told Max about this.' When he glared at she continued 'Then I get some stuff for TC and we're back out again in 15 minutes, once I've disabled the alarm of course. Oh, and you know, if you just told her she might not react the way you think, and then we wouldn't be forced to sneak out of TC.' He threw her another glare, and she shrugged. 'What?'

'I already told you, I'm telling her tonight, once I've actually got it.'

'I wasn't talking about the cure, Alec.' She said as they reached the end and she got on his bike, which he had moved there early that day. 'Hurry up snail, don't got all night.' She grinned as he got on in front of her and turned on the bike. Shit, I forgot how good at reading me she was. So that makes two people, count 'em, two people in TC who can read me like a book. Oh, this will be interesting – no, screw that, this is going to make my life hell! I think I need to keep her and Max as far away from each other as possible. Damn, this will be interesting.

'Hey, little fella, what's up?' Joshua asked, using one of his favourite expression that he'd learnt from Alec; which he'd become quite attached to after Alec had explained it didn't mean what was above you, but what was going on in your life. He thought is was very cool, and said it at every chance he got. He walked towards Max, who was standing with Luke watching monitors.

'Hey big fella, have you seen Alec around? He took off right after the meeting and I haven't seen him since. He mentioned something about having something to do but…' Max trailed off, lost in thought. Where is he? Probably off with some girl… why does that matter to me though? It's not like I care what he does, or who he does it with, as long as I'm not in the apartment.

'Don't think he's here, Max. He and Bree were going somewhere, that was the plan.' Joshua told her, and she looked up at him. Bree? Ok, so it is a girl, just not what I thought. Why am I so relieved? Oh who am I kidding, I can't stand the thought of Alec with another girl. There, I admitted to myself! Am I happy now? Oh great, now I'm talking to myself, just great. I'm supposed to be leading a 'nation' and I'm losing my mind. Wait, where would he be going with Bree?

'Bree? Going somewhere? What? Where…? Oh, I am gonna kill him, he's a dead man. That's why he wasn't being helpful with that new rule that we can't leave TC without filling in a form. He's up to something, and he doesn't want me to know what. That sneaky little… he's a dead man.' She said loudly, and everyone looked up at this, and some, those who could, gathered their things and left, quickly. 'Her first day here and Alec's already got Bree breaking the rules. And he's supposed to be my SIC! What kind of example is he setting, sneaking out of TC, and lying to me?' Max had to suppress a scream. She stalked towards her office, but paused in the doorway and turned to Luke. 'Oh, and Luke, I want to be informed the minute Alec is seen on one of those monitors.' She said, coating her voice in honey. Luke exchanged a glance with Joshua; they both knew Alec was in trouble. With that, Max walked into her office and gave herself the satisfaction of slamming the door behind her.

Max was waiting at the end of the tunnel when Alec and Bree came through into TC, pushing their bikes. The first thing she noticed were the boxes they had balanced on their bikes.

'Alec. Where the hell have you been? And what's with the boxes?' she snapped as she grabbed two of the offending boxes off the top to clear her view of him. But as she noticed what was in the boxes, her thoughts were sidetracked by what she saw. It looked familiar, too familiar. What…? Hey! This is my stuff! He went to my apartment and… stole my things and brought them to TC?

'Alec, this is my stuff! You went to my place and got my stuff?' That was so… wait, he went through my things? 'You went through my things? You touched my stuff?' Max truly didn't know whether she should be pissed off at the thought of him going through her things or grateful that he had thought of her. Alec could see this, and he started to laugh at her.

'No, no, Cindy packed your stuff. And we went to Bree's, cause she wanted to get some stuff, like her bike. Oh, and we went to my place, cause I don't know about you, but I was starting to run out of clean clothes.' She glared at him, even though she knew he was right. Or perhaps it was because he was right.

'So this is where you've been? All night?' She asked, suspicion coating her question. She looked at them both, and Bree looked away, pretending to look engrossed by something on the wall, and Alec cleared his throat.

'More or less.' He said evasively.

'More or less? Where else did you go, Alec? You can't keep secrets from me.' She held his gaze, daring him to lie.

'Never could.' When she just continued to look at him, he continued. 'Hey Bree, take your stuff to your place, Max take the top box from her pile, it's mine. And Bree, can you take the bikes back? See you at dinner.' Bree nodded as Max took the box from her, then she continued to push her bike towards the garage. Alec stopped his bike, leaving it for Bree, and took the remaining boxes off it, and then Alec and Max walked towards their own apartment. They were sharing for three reasons; first, when they had first assigned housing, they had still been pretending that they were dating, second, there wasn't enough room for separate apartments, and third, Gem had thought it would be funny to make their two leaders share, and see what happened. She had even been nice enough to give them one of the apartments with a single bedroom. She had laughed so hard at their faces when she told them; they had both had such looks of horror at the idea or a single bedroom. Alec had been told very simply, on the first night, that he got the couch.

They walked into their apartment and Max dumped the boxes she had been carrying and turned to face him.

'Ok, so spill. What else were you two doing?' She demanded, and she placed her hands on her hips to emphasise her annoyance. Not like I need to be told, a blind man could tell.

'We did a… job. Bree's got the money, she's gonna give it to Mole, by the way. And uh, then I had to go pick up something from a guy I know.' He knew his answer wouldn't satisfy Max, and that she wasn't gonna let him drop it that easy, but hey, he could try, right? And he really didn't know how to say what he needed to say.

'You went to pick up something from a guy you know? What thing Alec? What guy?' She was frustrated by his evasive answers, but she was determined no to let it show. Why doesn't he want to tell me? What was he doing that he can't tell me? Doesn't he trust me?

'Uh… it was… he was, is…' he trailed off and she looked at him worriedly. She had never seen him this lost for words since… well, never actually. He always had an answer for everything. He was normally full of words. Normally, she was trying to shut him up. But he clearly wasn't normal right now.

'What, Alec? You can tell me, you know that. You can tell me anything. Or don't you trust me?' His eyes snapped up to meet hers at this.

'Not trust you? No, I just told everyone that you should be the leader of TC cause I have absolutely no faith in you, whatsoever and I secretly want us all to be killed by White. Jesus Max, of course I trust you.'

'Ok then, so why the evasive answers? Why can't you tell me what you and Bree were doing tonight?' She heard him sigh in resignation, as he looked back down at the floor. After a minute, he looked back up at her.

'I was getting something from a scientist.' At her puzzled look, he elaborated. 'A Manticore scientist, I knew him back from the good ol' days. Same guy who made you your designer virus' he paused at her sharp intake of breath and then he slowly drew something from the inside pocket of his jacket. He held out his hand, a small rectangular box in it. Max looked up at him, waiting for confirmation. 'He's also the same guy who made this for you… the cure.'

Max stood rooted to the spot, staring at his hand. Minutes past, and finally Alec couldn't stand it any longer. 'Max? Say something, anything. God, hit me! Just stop standing there doing nothing.' She raised her eyes to his.

'This...' she cleared her throat and started again. 'This is the cure?' she asked softly, and Alec nodded. 'How… uh, how did you get it?'

'Uh, I managed to track down this guy – I knew him pretty well at Manticore, from Psy-ops, he was a pretty decent guy. Anyway, I managed to track him down about 3 weeks ago, just after that…. Night.' Max just continued to stare at him. She had so many questions racing through her head, but the one that forced its way out was 'But why?'

'Why what, Maxie?' Alec looked confused at her question. He thought it was pretty simple. I love you.

'Why did you do this? It must have cost, well, a lot more then you make…' she trailed off again and thought about it carefully. 'All those nights, you left Crash early or didn't come at all because you were 'too tired' to hang out, you were getting money?' He nodded his head slowly. 'But, I always thought you were with some… some girl, or other.' He laughed at this, a low, harsh laugh.

'Now, why would I do that when you're supposed to be my girl, Maxie?' he asked softly. She looked at him, confused by his words once again.

'But, I mean, you have been… I mean, it's not like you'd be cheating on me, you have been… right?'

'Yeah, I know it wouldn't be cheating on you. I've just, let's say, taken a… sabbatical from that for a little while.' When he saw the shock cover her face, he added 'No big deal, I've got other things to keep me…' But he was cut off as Max pressed her lips against his. It took his brain a few seconds to switch gears, but once it had, he was kissing her back.

Oh god, how can this feel so right? Why do I feel like I'm betraying him, by kissing him? Shouldn't I feel like I'm betraying Logan? Oh, shut up! She lost herself in the kiss, pulling him closer to her, one arm around his waist, the other around her neck, stroking his barcode. All of a sudden, the kiss changed as she became desperate, kissing him like the world was about to end. She clung to him, and he responded.

They broke apart after a minute, and stared at each other in stunned silence. As usual, Alec broke the silence. 'The cure?' was all he could manage to get out, holding out the hand that still held the small box. She took it, looked down at it in horror, and then she fled.

A/N: Ok, sorry for it's shortness, what can I say? Anyway, review! Please review! Next chapter's on its way, but I'm not gonna post until I get some reviews. (sorry about the bribery, but you know, I really want reviews)