Disclaimer: I do not own any characters you recognize, blah blah woof woof.

Notes: I know the last chapter was a little bit disjointed but it was 1 a.m., and I was supposed to be studying for my math exam when I felt compelled to write it. If any one knows of someone who will beta me, I'd be really grateful. And you guys have convinced me not to delete the story, but I feel I have to warn you that at times it could be awhile before I update, although I will try to update as much as possible.

Candyabble: Thank you so much, it's great to know. I read your story alls fair in love and war, and I loved it. I'll try and update as much as possible, but the likelihood of me updating a lot until about June 20 is unlikely, seeing as my exams go on until then. Luckily I'm getting the two hardest over with in the next couple of days so who knows right? Thank you once again for reviewing.

HoneyX5-452: Thank you so much for your reviews, and for putting me on your favourites list, I hope I won't disappoint you! I probably will find Zack a girl but I'm not sure if it will be Jondy. A couple of other characters will be entering the story later on that you should find interesting. This was originally only going to be only two or three chapters but hen it took on a life of its own, so at the very least it should be interesting.

Aur(Â ): Thank you very much, that's what I like about it too grins. My best friend tells me I love to turn things on their head, I suppose she's sort of right. I won't delete the story, but this is my first fanfiction, and truthfully, I've sort of been known to stop stuff for a while if people don't constantly bug me about it. But I will finish it, even if I don't know exactly where it's going currently.

Kharla whispered to Max "The guy on your far left near the door is checking you out."

Max laughed. "I'm serious!" Kharla exclaimed "Check him out. Even I have to admit he's hot, and I bat for the other team."

Max rolled her eyes and turned to look in the direction Kharla had indicated. She looked and found herself staring into the shocked, sparkling hazel eyes of Alec.

For a second max was speechless he looked even better than she had remembered, up close in person all she wanted to do was run up to him and capture those soft delectable lips. To see his eyes light up at the sight of her. Shaking her head slightly, she let those ideas go.

The irony of the situation was not lost upon her. The one person she was trying to avoid was one of the first people she stumbled across that morning. Hells fire, did fate her? What had she done in her past life? Kill a whole family of Murphy's?

Did he look more stressed? Focusing her eyes she saw that yes there were tiny little stress marks around his mouth and eyes. They were completely unnoticeable unless someone had spent as much time memorising him, and staring at him as she had. What had happened to him? Sex was supposed to relieve stress not cause it, Max reflected bitterly.

She finally became aware of Karla trying to speak to her, when Kharla drove an almost unnoticeable jab of her elbow into her elbow. Unnoticeable, that is, unless you know had a bruise forming in your gut. Max turned to the green eyed girl and managed to get out with a slight bite to it "Attention, duly recaptured. What?"

Kharla frowned slightly at her snappy tone, but let it go after seeing the faint sadness in her sisters eyes "That him?" she asked instead.

"Yeah," Max muttered "That's him."

"Um, Max?" Kharla hesitantly began.

"What?" the brunette irritably snapped.

"Don't look now, but he's coming over."

Max immediately stiffened, "Yup, probably to ask you out. You're new around here, and for all he knows you're easy."

Kharla could here the bitterness in her voice, but she could also detect hidden sadness and pain, in her eyes and in her voice. It was a gut reaction, for Max. Something hurts pretend it isn't there, that it doesn't exist, or get angry at the problem. Sometimes, it was both. From the little Max had told her and Jondy, she had left with barely a goodbye from him, and hadn't even gotten an apology from him for the night she told him she loved him. Damn they had issues!

"I'll see you later." She muttered and scampered off before Alec could reach them. She knew she wouldn't be able to stand seeing him hit on another woman, knowing she could never have him. Seeing him already had brought her both pain and pleasure in equal measure at the same time. On the one hand, she loved him, she had missed him. On the other hand it felt like she had just been stabbed in the gut, and someone had cut her still beating heart out and crushed it beneath their feet. She could never have him.

Alec saw Max race out the door, and hurried out after her, not even sparing a glance for the redhead. He thought he heard her mutter with a touch of surprise in her voice "Seems like she didn't give him enough credit."

He finally caught up to Max on her way back to her permanent apartment to get her Ninja. Feeling uncomfortable and not knowing what to say to the woman whose heart he'd broken he said the safest thing he could, "Hey Max"

The breathtaking beauty beside him shot him an undecipherable look "Hey."

Well it was better than nothing, he reassured himself, at least she was talking to him. "So," he awkwardly began "Where'd you go?"

"Around" she said vaguely.

He almost winced. It was such a far thing from their former relationship it was almost a joke, except it wasn't funny in the least. They used to be able to talk about anything and everything, and he had ruined that, Alec reminded himself, it was his fault.

Nevertheless he determinately persevered "So I heard we have a few new people, how'd you meet them?"

He belatedly realized this was the wrong way to put it when she heatedly snapped at him "They are my siblings whom I finally managed to track down, no thanks to Logan, and one of them is taken, while another one is a lesbian so don't even try it!"

"I didn't mean it like that Max." he said quietly as he tried to explain. That he had just been curious as to what she had done while he had beat himself up over the head for missing and messing up his chance with her. He knew how much her siblings meant to her, and it pained him to see the distance between them. There had been a time that she would have come into his apartment at any time of night, and they would have excitedly shared the news, and he would have been the first to know, but not anymore. He felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Hells fire, she'd left the state to get away from him! Or had she?

"Didn't you?"

Okay, make that stabbed in the heart, and then had the knife brutally twisted. They had now reached her Ninja, but he had to know. "Did you leave Seattle because of me Max? Because of that mistake that happened between us?" Bad choice of words he realized as he saw the flare of anger in her eyes at the word mistake. Nevertheless he would have to go with it, words can't be taken back, he had certainly proven that. "Because if it was I'm sor-"

She cut him off in a calm, quiet voice, although he could still see the torrents of emotions moving through her eyes, "Not everything his about you, Alec. And as for that night lets just forget it ever happened, alright? You're right, it was a mistake." And with those touching parting words she hopped onto her Ninja and rode out of there before he could get anything else out to try and undo the damage he seemed to keep causing.

Inwardly groaning he eyed the nearest brick wall and briefly entertained the notion of repeatedly slamming his head against it, but sadly he concluded that it wouldn't help any and simply give him one hell of a headache. And while he did feel he deserved the pain, it would make him more liable to say stupid things and screw up his situation with Max even more.

At the moment it was still possibly salvageable. It would need a lot of intense surgery in the I.C.U. ward, but it was doable. He may not be worthy of her but damn it, that still did not mean he wouldn't try his absolute hardest to get her back!