Alec found himself and Max in a parking lot within walking distance of his apartment. He knew once he saw her suitcase why she wanted to stop here. They needed wheels.

"What kind of vehicle you looking for?" he asked, leaning against a Chevy Impala while she scanned the lot. "Something with good gas mileage? You know it's almost 1400 miles to Denver."

"Something that says 'I can afford it.' And something black." Max stopped at an Audi. "Too expensive."

"How about this one?" he asked of the Impala. It was shiny, new-ish, and black. Looked expensive. It fit her criteria.

Max looked over to him. Something about how Alec leaned nonchalantly against that car made her look away before he could see her blushing. I must be crazy to be imagining being in that car with him on some deserted highway in the middle of the night. "Why? Are we picking up chicks?" she joked, coming to a stop in front of a black Mercedes SUV.

Alec smirked. "What!" he asked not-so-innocently. He looked to the car as if to say 'sorry, I guess not this time.'

"Found it!" Max called.

Alec brought their baggage over and set them at the rear of the car, then jimmied the driver's side door open with a slim-jim. An alarm sounded loudly.

Max jumped between the seat and the door and bent over into the driver's side to pull the car's wires.

Alec was looking out for anyone who might wonder what they were doing and why a loud alarm was going off, but when he looked over to Max, he became entranced by her backside.

"Alec!" she called, messing around in the wires.

"Hm?" he asked in mumbled response.

"Better not be lookin' at my ass!"

Alec laughed nervously. "Is there a law against appreciating what Manticore gave you?"

The alarm stopped. Max stood up and pulled the visor down. A set of keys dropped out. She turned to see Alec's surprised face. "What?" she asked, smiling.

"Nothing."

"Did they not have a class for this at Manticore?"

Alec grabbed the keys. "No, they did. But you were already out here that semester."

Max walked to the back of the vehicle. "Pop the trunk," she said. Alec released the lock on the back and Max loaded their luggage. "Let's get to Logan's and grab those IDs."

Alec knocked on the door for ten minutes before the door swung open to reveal Asha. He smiled. "Asha!"

"Hey guys," she said. "Logan had to step out for a few. He asked me to give you this if you stopped by while he was gone." Asha handed Max an envelope.

"Thanks," Max said, eyeing Asha suspiciously.

"He said to call him when you get there, and of course-"

"Be careful?" Alec chimed in.

Asha nodded with a smile. "Have a safe trip."

In the elevator on the way back down, Alec studied Max's face and body language for confirmation that she was, in fact, jealous.

"What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You're jealous," he blurted out.

"No I'm not!" she said. Of course she was, but was not about to admit it.

"Oh, so you're telling me the fact that Asha's traipsing around barefoot at Logan's doesn't raise the green flag for you?"

"Nope."

"It doesn't bother you one bit that she's allowed free reign in his absence?" Alec smirked.

Especially that, she thought. "Nope. We're not –"

"Not like that. Yeah, so I've heard." Alec paused a moment. "Who are you 'like that' with? Or have you ever been?"

Max scoffed. "None of your business!"

He smirked. Again. The 'I'm-right-and-I-know-it' smirk that drove her crazy.

The elevator doors opened and Max led the way out and back to the car.

"So you've never been – 'like that' – with anyone?"

Max stopped short. "No, okay? I've been on the run and kind of had to watch my own back for so long that I –"

"You've been 'like that' with yourself?" he joked.

Max huffed. "No, I-" she paused, weighing the pros and cons of telling him the truth. "Nevermind." She continued walking and climbed into the SUV.

Why does he always have to push my buttons? No one else in the history of my life pushes my buttons quite as effortlessly as he does.

Alec started the car, but sat silently, not even shifting the car out of park. "Max, I'm sorry," he started. "I just don't understand why you would deny yourself the opportunity to be happy." He stared at her but she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes.

With that said, he pulled out into the street and headed toward the sector checkpoint on the way out of town.

He'd been driving for over three hours when they reached Ritzville. They stopped at a gas station for a fill-up and some snacks.

"Kind of weird how gas is a little easier to come by out here," Alec said as Max offered him some bottled water.

"Yeah," Max responded. "Hey, sorry about earlier."

The truth is he was right. She had thought about what he said since they'd left Seattle. She even feigned sleep just so she wouldn't have to tell him that. But if she was honest with herself, the reason she and Logan weren't 'like that' was because she knew she wouldn't be happy with him, and consequently wouldn't allow herself to acknowledge that fact.

Maybe I have daddy issues, she thought, laughing to herself. There's just something in the way he looks at me that makes me feel special. Like I'm worth more to him as a person than a soldier; and I'm more to him than a genetically engineered, bar-coded assassin.

"Max," Alec jolted her out of her thoughts. "Earth to Max."

"Yeah?"

"I was saying no problem, and I'm sorry I pushed it."

"I'll take a turn at the wheel," Max offered. "You can catch some Z's."

"I'm not tired, but if you want to drive, no problem." He tossed the keys to her.

For the next six hours, Max and Alec talked about their best Manticore memories, which she was surprised so many of his involved his unit mates. He regaled her with stories of his missions with his SIC, Biggs. This Biggs character sounded like a pretty good guy, and their missions together were more reconnaissance and less assassination.

"One time, we went to spy on this congressman who was one of the deciding votes for genetic-manipulation-related scientific advances. He basically was the say-so on whether or not the government would support research on the idea. Biggsy and I infiltrated this guy's house. You shoulda seen it, Max, it was like a palace." Alec looked over to her, an excited smile plastering itself to his face.

Max smiled. It was as if Biggs was his best friend he hadn't seen in years. Which, she thought, had to be true.

Alec continued. "So we tranq the one police officer on this guy's estate and we sneak through his house, following the sounds coming from what we think is this weird pre-pulse movie, and we bust in on this guy getting busy with a robot, which wouldn't have been as weird if the guy wasn't taping it."

Max laughed. "Why is it always the weirdos that use science for pleasure?"

Alec laughed, remembering. "And the guy had the sex-bot programmed to respond to him with phrases like 'harder,' 'faster,' and 'oh, yeah.' Well this huge smile spreads on Biggs' face as he takes out the tape from the camera and says, 'Excuse me, sir, but you're committing a crime.' The guy's already totally embarrassed to have gotten caught and he's looking around for – I don't know – the authorities to show up and parade him around some news cameras or something, all the while saying he didn't know it was illegal to be doing what he was doing, and all Biggs can say is how this guy could go to jail because the robot was underage."

Max smiled and chuckled softly. "So what happened to this congressman?"

"We blackmailed him into changing his vote." Alec's face turned serious all the sudden. "Manticore didn't want the government to agree to the research, 'cause then they would have had competition."

He was silent for a moment. A soft smile reappeared on his face. "We've seen some weird shit."

Max pulled off the highway and toward a gas station. "So how long has it been since you've seen him?"

"The congressman? Well, since that day."

"No, Biggs."

Alec thought back. "Before you lit that bitch up, he was on a deep cover solo mission. So it's been almost 18 months."

"Should be quite the reunion, huh?"

Alec sat up a little straighter as they pulled into the gas station. His face changed slightly. "Yeah, just beware, Max."

"What do you mean?"

"He's kinda, um…"

Max bit her lip in anticipation. Alec was warning her about this guy? Maybe he wasn't as good a guy as she thought.

"Charming," Alec said, trying to figure out if he had just used the right word.

Max laughed. "Okay, I'll look out for this charming guy."

"I'm serious, the ladies used to go nuts when they were around the two of us. I don't know what he told them, but they believed it."

"Oh, and I'm sure you were so innocent," Max said, opening her door.

Alec met her on the driver's side of the vehicle to continue their conversation. "No, really. We were on mission in England when we were about sixteen, and we were going to this prep school. Had to wear these stupid little uniforms with shorts. Anyway, we befriended this politician's son. This kid was seriously involved in the extracurricular activities," Alec said, bringing a punched thumb and forefinger together toward his mouth and sucking in.

Max chuckled and placed the nozzle into the gas tank and started pumping.

"We were supposed to turn him straight, but Biggsy took a couple of hits too many and infiltrated the girls' school. He got it in his mind that twenty miles on a bicycle wasn't too far to go for a little lip action."

"You didn't go with him?" Max asked playfully.

"Of course I did," he admitted, smirking. "But I was a little more shy back then."

Max gasped in surprise. "You? Shy?"

Alec smiled. "After that night, we both got mono and the headmaster sent us both 'home.'"

Max frowned. "Where Manticore punished you for your misdeeds?"

"Bingo. But Biggsy had the phone numbers of probably fifteen girls in his pocket, and a silent promise he would go back eventually."

"So he's a regular Romeo. So what?" Max lifted the nozzle back into the gas pump. It really was easier to get gas outside of Seattle.

"Max, I'm saying just be careful. Even when we were at Manticore, he was kind of a heartbreaker. Ridiculously charming."

Max pulled some money from her pocket and approached Alec coyly. She stepped into his personal space, setting her body inches from his. "Seriously, Alec? You're ridiculously charming and I seem to be doing alright with you."

Alec took a step back, surprised. Did she accidentally let that slip out? Max smiled at him, having stunned him to silence. He felt his face redden a little.

"Need anything from the mart?" he asked, changing the subject and feeling like that sixteen year old boy again in a dorm full of young girls.

She smiled sweetly and handed him the cash. "Could you give this to the clerk?"

Alec swallowed hard and accepted the cash. "Sure." He slipped back into his older self's mind, and as she turned to twist the gas cap back on, he checked her out on his way around the vehicle, manifesting that sideways smile he always gave her when she wasn't looking.