Disclaimer: I don't own the show Dark Angel, I don't own the characters either. Life just wouldn't be complete if I wasn't allowed to at least write fanfic for it though.

A/N: Yeah, I know. It's been a while. Everything I can possibly say in excuse is simply excuse: between writer's block and school and work….yeah, it's been a while. I'm trying to keep it up, but you know how it can be sometimes. Anyway, here's chapter 4. Enjoy!

Always a Woman

Chapter Four: Going Home

The doctor watched as Alec hovered near Max, wondering about their relationship. The information that he had collected on 452 contained a brief summary of her behavior and actions after being captured by Manticore the year before, including the pairing of breeding partners. This man must be 494, the X5 she had been paired with. He fit the description, but their continued association unnerved him. All other breeding pairs at Manticore once separated never sought each other out again. This was a unique bit of information.

"Max, do you think you can walk?" Alec watched as she slid off the table, attempting to stand.

She sagged with her own weight before dropping to her knees on the ground. "No."

Alec walked up to her, thinking of a way to get her out of there. He dropped to one knee with his back to her. "Get on."

Max didn't protest. She clambered onto his back, grateful that he had offered. "Thanks."

When he stood, he felt her grip on his shoulders falter. "Do you think you'll be able to hang on for a while?"

"Probably not for very long. I really don't feel up to my usual standards. At all." He could feel the strain in her voice. She was exhausted. Max was never this tired.

"Hmm." He looked around the room for a minute. Spotting a coil of rope, he walked over and took it from the wall. He tied the rope around them both. He could hold her up well enough, but that didn't count her keeping balance enough to stay where she was. At least the rope would keep Max from falling off his back.

"You know, you're pretty smart sometimes." Max sounded shocked, as if this were the first time he used common logic to solve a problem. She was desperate to find anything that hadn't changed for her. The one thing she knew was there was the banter she shared with Alec, and she clung to it.

"Gee, thanks Maxie," he commented sarcastically, using the nickname he knew she hated.

Smiling at achieving the desired response, she threatened, "Alec, if I had the energy I would hit you for that." Instead, she slumped against his back, unable to hold herself up any longer.

He couldn't bring himself to release the laughter that threatened at her feeble attempt at her usual behavior toward him. The situation was not funny. For a Manticorean elite to loose their transgenic abilities was beyond comprehending. Yet it had happened, to Max no less, the one person in the world who had a mind of her own outside of Manticore and felt an obligation to do whatever good she could for the world. Whether it was residual compassion from working with Logan for years or her own stubborn will, Alec never really knew or cared. He just cared that it was a part of who she was, and he respected her all the more for it.

Max reached her arms over Alec's shoulders and let them hang loosely. She was too tired to actually hold onto him. "Can I go home now?" Max almost whined the request. The day had taken so much out of her, though, that she didn't care if she sounded like a child. She was tired, feeling cranky and very weak. All she wanted was to get back to her apartment and sleep without having to think about the rest of the world.

"Definitely." Alec headed for the door.

"Wait."

Alec turned at the doctor's voice. He had almost forgotten the man. "What?" He asked impatiently. Loathed as he was to admit it, Alec just wanted to take Max somewhere comfortable so she could sleep. "Man, what is your name anyway?"

"Macpherson," he answered. "Max can't go back to her place. That's one of the reasons I had the sector police help me track her down. Her place is being watched by the Familiars."

"Damn." Alec pursed his lips in thought. Where could he take her so that she would be safe?

The doctor looked sheepishly at Alec as he thought. He might as well admit his previous hostility to the man he now understood to be transgenic. "I have to admit, I thought you were a Familiar at first."

Alec's eyes widened as he looked at the man before him. "Well, that makes me feel wonderful. Really, warm-fuzzies abound because I look like an inbred machine from hell."

Max lifted her chin to his shoulder and evenly said, "No, you don't. We met a fair few of them, remember? Faces like bricks. You don't look like them."

"Thanks for that, Max." Alec turned sharply as one of the guards moaned, consciousness slowly returning.

Max clung to his shoulders at the sudden movement. She felt kind of nauseous, but tried to keep that from Alec. With his new behavior in taking care of her, she wondered what he might do if he knew she was sick. She stiffled a moan and dropped her face behind his shoulders again.

Alec frowned slightly at her action. "Max? You okay?"

Max grumbled something incoherent, hoping that any response was proof enough that she was fine, other than feeling weak.

Alec settled in his mind that she was alright. "Well, we should talk about living arrangements after we get out of here."

They left the building unnoticed by the various cops that roamed the halls, and proceeded to edge as inconspicuously as possible into a deserted alleyway. The doctor trailed a short distance behind them, having discarded the white coat in the basement.

"So, what do you think? Where should we set up?" Alec asked hesitatingly. He had one idea, but hated to offer it as a suggestion. He was no where near comfortable with the arrangement, but if Max would be safe there, that's what it had to be.

"I have no idea." She sighed, unable to even think clearly. "Why are you asking me anyway?"

"Well, it's gotta be somewhere you'll be safe, Max." He half turned to glance back at her. He had to say it. Almost groaning as he offered the suggestion, he said, "I was thinking about Logan's—rather Sandeman's house. It would be the next best place for you." Alec stuffed down his jealousy in favor of her comfort and welfare. "You'll be comfortable there, right? I mean, you are there a lot…And it's been rigged with security systems, so in a way it's kind of like a safe-house, right?" The words rushed out, he said them more to convince himself that it would be better that way than to compile a "pros" list for consideration.

"Yeah," she mumbled distractedly into his back. "I guess." She really didn't want to go there. Especially with recent events, Logan was the last person she wanted to see. "Alec," Max began worriedly, "if the Familiars know about my apartment…what about OC?"

"I'll call her," he said, pulling his cell phone from his pocket. As he dialed OC's pager, Alec tried to be optimistic, but he was having trouble convincing himself it would be for the better. He would have said they were heading back to TC, but he had no idea what was going on with her. Their best option at this point was to keep her outside the gates, until they knew what was happening. That and Sam Carr would have an easier time examining her if he didn't have to sneak inside TC, if they needed him.

OC called back less than five minutes later. "What's goin' on, Boo?" her sultry voice questioned. "Have you seen Max, by the way? Normal is chewing me out and I am getting ready to cram one of these mommy-missin'-packages down his bip-bip-biping throat."

"Hey OC," Alec smiled. "Yeah, Max is with me. We had a kind of medical emergency and won't make it into work. Uh, incidently, don't go home tonight. Come by Logan's and we'll have a tell-all."

"A'ight. Everything okay, though? You sound a little worried, Alec."

"Everything's good, OC. Just promise us that you'll crash at Logan's with Max tonight and not go home."

"Yeah, sure."

"I am not paying you to gab on that telephone, Princess! 12 Ashen Vine and Cedar!" Alec heard Normal yelling in the background.

"Yeah, keep your shirt on, Normal. I gotta run, Boo. See you later tonight. And tell Max to watch her backside. I'll be by right after work."

"Thanks, OC. See you then." Alec closed his phone and dropped into his pocket, noticing that they had arrived at Logan's place. His feet had propelled themselves on the entire trek. Alec motioned to the house for the doctor, still following behind them, and climbed the steps. "She'll be there," he said looking back at Max again, but she never heard the words. She had fallen asleep, her cheek resting on Alec's shoulder.

Alec was thoroughly confused. The only times Max ever slept was her once a week, three hour snooze fest, or when she'd been knocked out in a fight, which rarely happened. This was just unnatural. Whatever was going on with her, it scared him. If she fell asleep on the way home from the local sector police prescient, then would she even be able to defend herself if another attack came? There was no way to tell, and he didn't want to take the chance. Just thinking about the possibility of Max getting attacked again, without having any transgenic resources of her own, was enough to make his heart stop for a few beats. If Max was hurt and he hadn't been around to protect her he would never forgive himself.

When Rachel had died, Manticore had given him enough to make him not care. It had been Max who told him that Rachel's death hadn't been his fault but Manticore's. Now there was no Manticore to blame. If something happened to Max, he could only blame himself.

Alec quietly stepped into the cyber-journalist's entryway, and let the doctor enter before closing the door behind them. He stepped carefully, not wanting to wake his precious cargo. But Logan shouted around the door casing. "Alec, if that's you, you better expect a continuation of our discussion."

Alec flinched, thinking that Max would wake, but she only turned her face further into his shoulder and kept sleeping. "Logan," Alec hissed, stepping into the living room. "Now is so not the time!"

Logan turned away from his computer screens to take in the sight. Max was hoisted on Alec's back, her head leaning lazily against his shoulder with her eyes closed. "And what's this?"

Alec smirked at the man's jealous streak. "Max is dealing with something pretty big," he said coolly. "I suggest, you keep your voice down and let her sleep."

The doctor came around the corner, stopping short when he saw Logan. He turned to Alec who rolled his eyes and moved to set Max gently on the couch. The doctor moved to help him untie her from his back.

Logan frowns at the intrusion of the man. "Alec, I think your judgement is failing, bringing an unknown man into my home."

"First of all, my judgement is fine." When Max had been settled as comfortably as possible, he continued, "This guy is the only one who has a clue about what's going on with Max. Second, this is not your home. You live here because your place got trashed by the Familiars. Remember, this house is and always will belong to Sandeman."

The doctor let the information settle. Sandeman's house. That is, before he was resigned to go on the run. "Alec," Macpherson tested the name. When Alec turned to him expectantly, he continued, gesturing to Logan, "just who is this guy?"

"I'm Max's boyfriend," Logan answered.

Alec rolled his eyes. "I don't think you should be labeling yourself, especially considering the fight that the two of you had this week."

"It's just a fight…" Logan trailed off, turning back to his computer.

"Yeah, subsequently followed by her not speaking to you." Alec turned to the doctor to explain Logan's presence. "He's a cyberjournalist. Max and I help him out from time to time." For some reason, Alec felt obligated to keep the whole Eyes Only thing under wraps.

The doctor shrugged. "Alright. As long as you trust him."

Alec thought about that. Max may trust him, but he didn't. Ever since he met the guy, he thought something was out of place with him.

The doctor decided not to comment on the expression that settled on Alec's face. He was the one who had suggested this place as a refuge for Max to begin with. "So, anybody have a microscope?" He asked uncomfortably, pulling the vile of Max's blood from a pocket.

A/N: So, tell me. What do you think? Reviews, people, I seek reviews. Let me know how you think it's progressing.