The rest of the ride to Henderson was met with some silence from both transgenics. Alec couldn't go back to sleep after the nightmare, but Max had seemed so upset about something that he feigned sleep until either he could figure out what to say or figure out why she was so upset.

The last thing he had said to her was that he had to tell Scar that her soulmate was gone. Maybe that had prompted her to think about her soulmate. He made a face as his stomach soured at the thought of Max's reaction if she had heard that Logan had died. It was filled with angst and complete sadness. And he realized that he would have to watch it, because there was no way he was going to be leaving Seattle anytime soon. He had ties.

He remembered some advice he had once given Max. He had told her they didn't belong with Ordinaries, because transgenics were a danger to them. Silently, Alec scolded himself for that. How much of that was his own belief she didn't belong with Logan, and how much was it just guilt and reaction to a prematurely astute observation?

He knew he couldn't have stayed with Rachel, especially after she knew the truth about him. She had looked at him as if he was a monster. He had been a danger to her. He had betrayed her. And look how that turned out, he added sardonically.

But, who says it would be the same in all transgenic-human relationships? Joshua had never been in love before Annie, he was certain. But what kind of life could they have lived? Joshua's transgenic-ness got her involved, and it got her killed. Alec's heart broke all over again for his canine-enhanced friend.

Max's twin had lived a fairly successful life up until she broke cover. A human husband and human son. And then how did it play out?

What about transgenic-transgenic relationships? Gem didn't exactly have the best experience with her breeding partner. Following orders made her a mother, which to Gem's credit she was great at, but Manticore hadn't thought about what its soldiers wanted or didn't want.

Then again, Trip and Scar could really have been great together. They were devoted from the first glance. Certainly, love at first sight wasn't a gene that could have been spliced into their DNA, so what other truth could he glean from the situation other than the idea that they were capable of love, no matter the danger that love posed? And now Trip was dead.

Alec sighed heavily. He didn't like being right about this. He really didn't like being right, because it meant Max would be miserable forever.

"You okay?" Max asked.

He opened his eyes and watched how cleverly she disguised purposefully not looking at him. "Didn't fool you, huh?"

Max gave him a faux-smile. "Transgenic, remember?" she said, drawing a parallel between them which drove the point further in his mind. She may as well have just said, 'We're always doomed.'

At least transgenics and transhumans knew the truth about one another, he thought. They had been through much of the same things – training, torture, loss. Alec said nothing more, just looked out the window at the passing scenery.

Max continued to wonder what he had dreamt about. She wondered if he had dreamt about her, but decided it was probably Rachel. All this talk of soulmates had probably conjured up his feelings for the only woman he had ever loved. She wondered if any woman could ever compare to Rachel.

A little while later, they gassed up again just inside the Henderson city limits before getting back on the freeway. Alec took a turn at the wheel and offered to let Max sleep.

"Not quite tired yet."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Alec tried to prepare himself for the response he knew asking this question might evoke. "What happened with Logan? Lately, you always tense up after you talk to him. Even though I was drunk, I could tell something had upset you."

Max looked down to her ring and covered it with her other hand. The more they talked about stuff 'back home,' the sooner reality would creep up into the conversation and they'd have to start acting like themselves again. Their respective reputations would shift back into place. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, she had liked wearing the ring, feeling secure, being his wife.

But back home, they'd be faced with Logan's prying questions and expectant stares. They'd be faced with that 'outsider' glare, and they'd have to explain what had happened. They would no doubt talk about the hotel arrangements and how they had shared a bed; everything with Biggs and Trip; he'd want to know about it all, but she didn't want to tell him. And they'd have to take off their rings.

Besides the explanations, Max really wasn't ready to forgive him, yet. "He's a pretty smart guy," she started. "But for some reason, he thought you and I would be better, you know, related." She couldn't even say the words. It infuriated her that Logan was so unobservant.

"Which is why we got married IDs," Alec filled in. "So how come you were so tense that night? Did I upset you or something?"

Max's lips formed a thin line before she revealed, "He just really pissed me off. He thinks he can read my mind, but he can't. He has no idea what I think about my unit, about them – Zack, Tinga. Ben."

The last name was said with such an amazingly soft, irate suggestion, that suddenly, it was clear to Alec what had happened. "Brother and sister?" His grip tightened on the wheel as Max looked away. "Why the hell would he do that?" he asked, his eyebrows quirking up and down as he tried several lines of logic that entered his thoughts. "He knows about Ben, right?"

Jerk, he added mentally. Yeah, make her think about her dead brother. As if my face doesn't already haunt her enough. Doesn't he understand what drawing parallels between me and Ben does to Max? I don't even know the guy and I've been paying for his sins damn near my whole life, including the greatest sin he could have ever committed: breaking Max's heart by asking her to do what she did.

"He only knows Ben is dead," she replied, looking down at her hands again like Lady MacBeth bored into her own.

"Oh, Jesus, Max, I'm sorry," Alec offered, reaching to cover her hands with his right hand. She needed to stop blaming herself and he'd risk his best hand if not looking at her own would provide some relief. He considered pulling over, but dismissed the idea; she would just be too embarrassed and shut down or shut him out.

Max stared at the pores of his skin. She understood his gesture, and contrary to what she may have thought at the start of their journey, she felt some warm comfort from it.

"Why would he do that without talking to you first? Unless-"

"Unless what? Unless he's actually trying to push me away?"

"Or push us apart," Alec added lowly, refusing to look at her. He wanted to see her reaction without betraying his own thoughts. He wouldn't put it past the Ordinary to act passive-aggressively with an offensive move, such as trying to condition Max's response to Alec to be one of sibling relation. What better way to remove him as a threat?

Max opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Sure, it's no secret that Logan doesn't particularly like Alec, per se, and Alec does have more in common with me than Logan does, but would Logan really stoop so low as to use my dead brother against me? Against Alec? If so, she wondered, is that someone who I would really want to be with? Someone who has my best interests at heart?

She attempted to brush off Alec's comment, but she just kept thinking about it. Logan knew Alec wasn't in her unit, and that consequently, that meant Alec was not her brother, so what other conclusion should she have come to except that Alec was right?

Max sunk further into her seat and stared at their hands expectantly, until she was satisfied they didn't have the answer. She stared out the window.

Well, she didn't tell me I was full of shit, Alec thought. Which means we are close enough to be pushed apart. He felt the air thicken and the guilt rise up in his chest. Unsure of how to help or what to say, he stared straight ahead and continued driving.

Logan could not have less control over Max or Alec if he tried. Alec doubted that Max had shared much more of her personal history with the journalist if she hadn't told him about Ben. And it wasn't Logan's to ask or know. He'd look at her like Rachel had looked at Alec. Alec grimaced at the thought of anyone disparaging Max. She was probably the best person he knew, transgenic or not. She was also the bitchiest person he knew, transgenic or not. But it was getting clearer by the day why she was like that.

And no amount of Logan's meddling could change the wild-eyed desire Alec felt around her into a sibling moral ambiguity.

But, he was relieved to hear that Max was angry at Logan for insisting a familial relationship between them. It gave him some hope that one day she'd be able to see just Alec when she looked at him.

"Want me to beat him up?" he asked, a small smile tilting toward her.

Max looked over to him. She grinned.

A few hours passed as they crossed into California and over the morning, and people started to pepper the roads, going about their lives.

Max saw a couple of families with kids in the back seats, fighting, sleeping, and playing. Soon, these kids will be able to join them, she thought. We'll make sure they'll have a chance at a real life. At being kids and not having to worry about their next meal or where they're going to sleep, or which tattoo removal facility would work on kids.

She glanced at Alec. This whole experience was so surprising. He had really come through for the kids, and even though Trip had ideas which aided to his own demise, Alec's heart seemed completely involved. Had she just assumed this whole time that he was a heartless, womanizing narcissist? Or was she assuming it because she wanted him to prove her wrong?

She wondered what life would be like when they got back to Seattle. Would she forgive Logan his misconceptions and misdeeds and continue to moon over him? Would Max and Alec go back to arguing and goading one another, pretending – when they had to – that they hadn't shared more than they intended on this journey? Would Alec go back to trying to court Asha?

"Hey, Alec."

"Yeah."

Max fidgeted, trying to figure out how to bring up the topic of Asha and how Biggs had talked about her. "Biggs mentioned Asha while you were heaving in Technicolor the other night."

He let slip an accidental guilty look. "Yeah?"

Max bit the inside of her cheek and tried to figure out what she was trying to ask – or more importantly, why she was trying to ask it. "How did she come up?"

Alec tried to remember how he and Biggs started talking about Asha. Parts of that night were a bit hazy, but he was pretty sure he had mentioned something about Asha's role in the whole group dynamic. S1W soldier, pixie Eyes Only/Logan groupie. "Well, what did Biggs say?"

Typical man, trying to do pre-damage control. Biggs had suggested that Logan had somehow chosen Asha over Max. It dawned on her that maybe he was suggesting that Alec had. Which makes my response stupid, Max thought. They're not like that, but not because she's not trying, she repeated in her mind.

If it was Logan that Biggs was talking about, then Max's immediate response proved to her that Asha actually posed a pretty serious threat to Max's romantic involvement with Logan. Hell, she was comfortable in his penthouse, alone.

But if he meant Alec had already chosen Asha over Max, well, then she didn't understand why her face started feeling hot. And she didn't understand how he could have chosen one over the other, because she didn't know she was even one of his choices.

"You talking about your 'not-like-that' comment?" he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Max lowered her head out of embarrassment. "You heard that?"

Alec pointed to his ear. He smirked and said, "Transgenic, remember?" He smiled and continued. "Biggsy's just a hornball."

Even though that was most definitely true, Alec hadn't intended on souring Max's mood any further by suggesting that Asha's barefooted presence in an otherwise unoccupied penthouse apartment belonging to a certain cyber hack they both knew was indicative of anything other than the two Ordinaries' 'friendship.'

Max laughed. "So you're her pimp now?"

Alec smiled. "No, just saying there are some available ladies in Seattle if he's interested in moving there."

Suddenly, Max found herself wondering if Alec had placed her on that list. "Oh yeah? Like who?"

Alec grinned knowingly. "Besides Asha?" Max was getting a jealous expression on her face and he loved it.

Is he deflecting? she wondered. "Besides Asha."

He resisted the urge to say 'Original Cindy,' though the idea of it tickled him deeply. He looked to Max a moment. "You mean did I tell him you were available?"

Busted.

He softened. "Now why would I want my second-in-command going after my wife?" he joked. Nonetheless, that twinkle returned to his eye for just a moment.

Max faced the passenger's side window to hide her smile and pride.

At the gas station, Alec put his suit jacket back on and disappeared into the mart to pay for the gas as Max pumped it into the SUV. She soaked up the remaining bits of the sun. The air was still a little chilly and it reminded her of home.

She could see Alec through the windows and caught herself daydreaming about some alternate universe where they weren't brought up in a militaristic government facility or created in test tubes. Where they were normal. They could have lives where they weren't being hunted or didn't have an extremely unfortunate secret which could stand so firmly between life and death.

Smiling to herself, she replaced the pump as Alec walked back toward the vehicle. He looked like he was hiding something, but she needed to call Logan and find out if he got his hands on those IDs, so she didn't pay any mind to his suspicious behavior.

"Gotta make a call," she said as she passed him on her way to the payphone.

Logan's voice was different this time. Hesitant. "There was some chatter about gunfire at the Lux. Are you okay? Why didn't you tell me?"

Max pursed her lips. "I'm fine. Alec's fine. We lost one of the kids." Admitting it to Logan felt like telling someone you lied to that you were sorry. Caught. Tears started to well her eyes.

It was quiet on the line before he spoke again. "Aw, Max, it's going to be okay."

Not for Scar. Not for Alec. And not for me. Not at all. "Please give me some good news," she begged.

"I'm sorry, Max, but I need more time for those IDs."

Max grinded her teeth in frustration. What was she going to tell Biggs? What would the kids do? How could Alec ever trust her again if she couldn't get those IDs? She feared how he'd look at her when she let him down.

"Max?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"I'm really sorry. I tried to get them."

"Yeah, me, too," she said absent-mindedly. She peeked toward the SUV, where it looked as though Alec was carefully folding his jacket and placing it in the back with their bags.

"I'll keep trying," he said. "Give me a call when you get to Santa Cruz and maybe I'll have something for you."

Alec leaned against the driver's side and looked down at his sleeves.

"I gotta bounce," Max said. She hung up the receiver.

The walk back to the SUV proved a longer trek than she thought. She had to tell Alec the truth, and she felt like after all this, he would never ask for her help again. The closer she got to the vehicle, the lower he seemed to sink. He hadn't noticed her approach, and by the time she reached him, he was still staring at his sleeves.

She wanted to ask if he was okay, but somehow, she knew she couldn't bear it if 'I'm always okay' didn't come rolling off his tongue.

Maybe it was time for the shirt to come off.

Max walked to stand between him and the pump. Finally, he looked up.

"Ready to go?"

Max reached out for his right arm. "Not yet." She folded down his sleeve and repeated the action on his other side. She looked to his partially confused eyes, which flashed to hers before following her hands up to the topmost buttoned portion of his shirt. She worked the button loose and let a breath go that she wasn't aware she was holding.

Alec brought both hands up to hers and stilled her movements with gentle pressure. She furrowed her brow in concern, chanced a look into his eyes, and pulled her hands down to the next button. She had that look again. She was going to do this and he damned-well better let her.

He dropped his hands as she unbuttoned a few more of the white round pieces of plastic, revealing the white v-neck tee he wore underneath. She reached the waist of his pants, and without hesitation, tugged the tails of his shirt out. She unfastened the last button and looked up to him.

Paralyzed by the whole act, he realized he was at her mercy, his lips slightly parted.

Max swept her fingertips under the dress shirts' lapels and over his shoulders, stepping closer to him, dragging her hands down the backs of his arms to help remove the cloth. Gathering the material in on hand, Max handed the article to him.

Maybe she was too close for his comfort. Maybe that's why he was staring at her as if she'd just chipped away a piece of his defenses.

He watched as the corners of her mouth drew up in a small grin. "I know, I know. I couldn't make it home without undressing you at least once."

He knew she was lightening the mood, but he suddenly found it difficult to escape the images in his brain.

"We got a rendezvous to make," she said, slinking around the vehicle to the passenger's side.

On the final leg of the ride to Santa Cruz, the two transgenics stayed mostly quiet, and as they got closer to their meeting place, they realized they were getting closer to having to tell Biggs and Scar about Trip.

And Max was trying to find a way to break the news to Alec that Logan hadn't come through with the paperwork for the kids. Too many parts of the mission were failures, and she wasn't sure if he'd forgive her for that.

Alec had been quiet, but he had stared at her for multiple stretches of time, as if he wanted to say something but continually talked himself out of it.

"What?" Max asked, finally having grown tired of the silence. "Something on my face again?" She raised a hand partway to her face and remembered their near-kiss in the hallway.

Despite how desperately she wanted him to look at her like he had before, he didn't. Alec didn't smile. Instead, his face grew very serious. "Thanks," he said quietly, almost as if he was admitting something embarrassing. "For… the shirt thing."

Max nodded. Somehow, it was acceptable for someone else to remove the shirt, but not him. The vulnerability in his deep voice tugged at her heart, and she couldn't deny that she probably wouldn't have done that for anyone else, guy or girl. And she had a strong feeling he wouldn't have let anyone else do that for him.

She eyed the bag at her feet and pulled it up to rummage through it. "Snack?"

Alec smiled. "Only if you make it the same way I did."

Max busied herself with splitting the banana peel and wedging a square of chocolate into the fruit before breaking off a piece and raising it to Alec's mouth. He didn't move his hands from their positions at the wheel and arm rest. As he took some of the fruit into his mouth, his lips closed around her thumb and forefinger, dragging their softness along her fingertips. It was the ghost of a moment that didn't happen in his apartment.

Momentarily, Alec closed his eyes to savor the richness of the chocolate with the sweetness of the banana. He hummed appreciatively. "A guy could get used to that," he said.

"You should probably keep your eyes on the road," Max replied, pulling her hand back to prepare a piece for herself.

He watched her in his peripheral, eying the delicate way she pushed the chocolate into the banana. Yet another contradiction to the careful reputation she had constructed of being a badass, leather-clad know-it-all without an ounce of gentility. He smiled as she ate a small piece and licked her fingers of the banana residue.

Max shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. "Alec?"

Her voice sounded so serious. It worried him. "Yeah?"

Max fidgeted with the chocolate, half-sticking out of the banana like a flag. She wanted to tell him about the IDs and Logan. She wanted to tell him he was okay, that agreeing not to kill Marco was a good thing; she wanted to tell him that she was sorry about Trip, that they had done all they could have. But she couldn't form the words and stared down at her hands and the banana until all the chocolate squares stuck out in a mini banana Mohawk. "Thanks for introducing me to bananas and chocolate," she finally said.

Weak, she thought.

"Told you you'd thank me," he said. The banana looked odd and it made the corners of his mouth start a curl upward. "You gonna hog that banana all night?"

Max slapped him teasingly with her left hand. "Does everything you say have to be sexual?" She broke off another piece.

"You're the one who suggested – oof-" Alec grunted as Max shoved the piece into his mouth. He stopped his sentence and pushed the heavenly combination to the roof of his mouth until they melted into one another.

"Is this all it takes to shut you up? We should get a lifetime supply of this stuff for TC."

"If that's what it takes to get you to feed me, I know a couple guys."

"Well I hope you like them a lot, because they'll be the only ones feeding you."

"No, I like you more," he said. "Besides, they definitely would not look as hot as you in bikinis."

Max smiled insincerely and slapped him again.

"Ow!"

"That's what you get for being a chauvinist!"

"Is that what you call hitting on someone? Where'd you learn to flirt, Max? The School of Literal Hard Knocks?"

"So funny," she said. "Let me guess: Manticore had a 'Flirting For Dummies' class." She smiled at her own joke.

He loved it when she smiled. It was sexier than her scowl, but sometimes he never broke through her defenses and had to suffice with the saucy spice that came with her dagger-like stare. "Yeah. Come on by and I can teach you a lesson or two!"