Yay!! Tyler finally updated....*throws tomato at muse* BAD MUSE...well I actually can't blame dear Albatross (yes, the muse has a name - it's flighty, you see :D). It's just the perils of life...busyness overtakes the cleanest of intentions. Except when it comes to reviewing - because reviews are an unstoppable motivation ;).
-- Tyler
Sleep evaded Max that night. She'd worked her fingers to the bone trying to hash out exact and flawless strategies with the rest of the team at Central until Joshua had piped up with concern that it was past midnight.
Max had glared at him until the canine nomalie was thoroughly cowed, but (rotten as her luck was now standing) Alec had swiftly taken over from that point, insisting that Max hit the sack and that the rest of planning could wait a few hours.
Doesn't that idiot understand that I don't sleep? Max seethed inwardly as she hiked the stairs to her apartment as though a thousand weights were dangling from each ankle. I mean it's like he enjoys being a domineering asshole.
A small part of Max's mind wondered if Alec was using his significantly more protected situation to give her a good boot up the pants for the year's worth of attitude Max had lavished upon her fellow X5.
But she doubted it…which gave way to the slightly more tremulous possibility that Alec's dramatic increase in concern heralded something else…
Something that sent a tight whip of flutters snapping through Max's abdomen and prevented her from catching up on the sleep Alec was apparently so dogmatic that she needed.
The red-orange glow of the sky from Max's window was less then promising as she eagerly swung her legs out of bed.
Her heart nearly leapt into her throat as she caught sight of a tall, well-built leaning against the edge of her kitchen counter.
"Who the hell are you?" Max demanded, feed hitting the floor with a thud as her fists balled by her sides. The intruder raised his hands in surprise.
"Max, it's me!"
Max blinked and took a step backwards, squinting as she finally took in the sight of Alec looking genuinely disturbed by her failure to recognize him.
"Ugh!" She growled, eager to gloss over the lapse in her vision as she slammed her shoulder against his while storming past, "Don't do that!"
"Do what?" He queried in a bewildered tone, and Max winced as she yanked the door to her bathroom open and felt a tremor course through her body.
"Come into my apartment without knocking first!" She yelled as she slammed the door shut loudly behind her and locked it with shaking fingers. The shaking was starting again – and this time Max was ready for it. She quickly unscrewed the cap on her pills capsule and swallowed a handful of the Trytophan supplements.
It would blow over.
A burning pain began to bubble in her veins, and Max clamped her jaw shut as her legs gave out under her and she hit her tailbone against the bathtub soundly.
Okay, so it wasn't blowing over – but at least nobody had to see it this time around.
"Look I'm sorry I startled you, alright?" Alec's voice, flippant and unbothered, echoed through the door as Max hugged her knees to her chest and grit her teeth for all she was worth, "I just came by to pick up some stuff of Rait's she left here. I'll be out of your way in a second."
"Whatever!" Max ground out, forcing a snide edge into the word as her vision began to blur further. She managed to scoot away from the bathtub in an effort to prevent the sound of her backbone slamming repeatedly against it from reaching Alec's uber-sensitive ears. The fit was coming on strong now.
Max could hear Alec's muffled cursing as he rifled through her front room in search of his objective – something about rodents and bad piping and all the other complaints the man frequently voiced about Max's housing situation. She really didn't give a crap if her hen pad wasn't up to snuff with his own. Boy could shove it as far as Max was concerned.
God, how did the burning not blister her insides?
"Hey, are you ever gonna use this steak I got you? Cuz it's already like a week past its sell-by date and I don't want somethin' this fine going to your little rat friends." Alec queried breezily, and Max's shoulders shuddered violently as her throat seized up and she found herself unable to respond.
"Max?"
Go away. Max desperately tried to force out the words, but they came out as a low warble, Please go away.
A light rapping of knuckles on her door was the first warning sign, and Max would've circled her eyes had they not already been rolled up into her head.
"Hey – you okay in there?"
Max clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug into her palms and drew blood, fighting off the frustration that being completely helpless tended to bring on. She couldn't utter a sound that wouldn't give credence to that fact she was majorly seizing up.
Damn it!
Alec was quiet for a long moment, and Max knew better then to hope he'd gone to bother someone else. Oh no, Knowing Alec, he was merely listening – his keen hearing attuned to anything that might give him an excuse to get the door open and rush to Max's aid.
Great – last thing I need is another knight in bullet-proof armor. Max attempted to keep at least her thoughts in check as her body completely rebelled against all control and began to shake violently, nearly tossing Max across the tiled floor, Why doesn't he just goaway?
Max heard Alec sigh heavily and then mutter something to the effect of "God, not this shit again." She felt her anger coil to strike even in her incapacitated state – how fucking dare he act like this was inconveniencing him?
Sure enough, the stubby oval lock twisted slowly and then clicked compliantly. For all the careful precision Alec had exercised in picking Max's lock, he certainly threw caution to the wind the moment he saw her seizing up on the bathroom floor.
"Oh god…" Alec murmured as he dropped to one knee, hands hovering anxiously over his fallen friend as though he was afraid to touch her and aggravate the seizure, "Okay…uh, just… hang on, Maxie, alright?"
Not like I can up and leave, is it? Max thought snidely, but the pain was beginning to intensify once more and even her clarity of mind was being burned away. Alec was by her sink, a blur of movement as he emptied the remainder of the Tryptophan into his palm and sank beside her once more.
"Here," He coaxed, voice sounding calmer yet still worried as he slung an arm around Max's shoulders and carefully eased her into a sitting position, "Here you go, come on."
Max would have shaken her head if it wasn't already gyrating along with the rest of her frame as Alec attempted to feed her the pills which would send her system into even worse condition with an overdose. She pressed her lips tightly together and turned her face away, willing the seizure to ease up – even just slightly.
"Max," Alec's voice was stern, angry even, as she tried to pull away and his grip around her tightened, "you have to take'em, okay? It's gonna help."
"No." Max was pleasantly surprised that the word, shaky though it was, made it to open air, and Alec's face twisted in frustration.
"You already take some?"
Max could only get out an 'mmm' this time, but she figured it was better then nothing. Alec's arms tightened around her, crushing her to his chest and easing the shaking somehow in the process.
"Okay…okay…it'll pass, Maxie."
It has to.
Max could hear the raw assurance in Alec's voice and clung to it like a beacon in the night.
The seizure did pass – half an hour of agonizing pain and sweat and even tears later. Max was curled up in the cradle of Alec's arm as he sat beside her, his perfect frame, warm and firm as her own, fitting like a missing puzzle piece against her.
"Sorry." Max whispered, glad her voice had returned and eager to beat the scene as soon as her recovering body allowed her to do so.
Alec scoffed beside her, "For what?'
"You shouldn't have had to see that." Max explained as she used the small amount of strength returned to her to push herself into a sitting position, "It's not exactly a pretty sight."
"Why the hell are you still having seizures? Are you even taking the Tryptophan?" Alec demanded angrily, his tone suggesting he wasn't even going to bother acknowledging Max's apology.
"Of course I am! It's just not helping." Max responded in her defense, threading her fingers shakily through the damp roots of her hair and glaring at Alec, "I told you, I don't think it has anything to do with that."
"Then what?" Alec queried, his face softening somewhat though his lips were still pressed into a tight purse, and Max shook her head ever so slightly.
"I dunno."
Silence reigned for a moment before Max broke the ice as quickly as possible, keen on squelching further conversation on the topic of her mutant seizures.
"Any progress on the Jam Pony front?"
"Spoke to Sketchy." Alec was still eyeing her as though she were about to internally combust, though for some reason he was humoring her by playing along, "He was real quiet 'bout the whole thing at first, but I wheedled it outta him."
"And?" Max questioned anxiously, gripping the cold edge of the bathtub and hoisting herself into a standing position, Alec's hand still maintaining its hold around her hip as he helped her do so.
"Says Normal got yanked out for questioning and Cindy got pulled pretty much right after he left." The male X5 ignored Max's attempts to dislodge herself from his side as he ushered her out of the bathroom and over to the ratty sofa, "Normal's not breathin' a word about what happened, but Sketch says he was pretty worked over, so he's guessing Normal refused to crack and Cindy was brought in to sweeten the pot."
Max's jaw clenched at the thought as she sank into the grimy leather couch, "Which explains why he isn't talking."
"More or less." Alec agreed, and Max couldn't help noticing the way he fiddled with the fraying edges of his gloves, eyes gathered at the edges and lips pursing in concentration. Did the man seriously have a camera-worthy face for every occasion?
Oh my god. Max shook herself inwardly, disgusted with her inability to concentrate, Focus, you idiot.
"Sounds like it's about time I paid Normal a lil' visit." Max rested her palms against the edge of her seat and glanced up at Alec casually, "You know, try to play bad cop for a change."
"You sure you're up to it?" Alec's eyebrows arched skeptically, and it wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to determine that the X5 was entirely certain Max wasn't up to it.
Max rolled her eyes, "I'll be at Jam Pony's." She clipped her pager to her belt and was reaching for her jacket when she caught sight of the expression on Alec's face. It was a mixture of horror and disgust, his eyes glazing over her shoulder to pinpoint some atrocious sight.
"What?" Max queried cautiously, and Alec's eyebrows narrowed deeper.
"The hell is that?"
Max swiveled on her hip, turning to scan for the source of Alec's unabashed revulsion. Maybe he'd finally noticed the termite's nest buried in the floorboards under the couch…they came out sometimes when they were feeling emboldened.
But there was nothing. Max frowned in confusion as she turned back to Alec.
"I dunno what you're…"
The slug to her jaw was hard enough to send her body into a full circle as she sprawled, unconscious onto the ground.
When Max came to, she was lying on the comfortable back seat of a car, wrapped in a brown cotton blanket that seemed to block out the frozen air pumping through the open window of the driver's seat.
Feeling her heart race in her chest, Max jolted into a sitting position, getting halfway up before she realized that her wrists were handcuffed together behind her back. Panic began to surge as Max twisted against their grip and found them to be unyielding.
"Hey Maxie!" The chirpy greeting echoed from the front seat of the car, and Max squinted against the disorientation still fogging up her brain as her stomach muscles aided her into a sitting position – giving her a clear shot of Alec's sandy-colored hair and the worn collar of his jacket.
"Alec?" Max glanced out the windows of the car and noticed the sun had long disappeared from the sky, leaving in its place a smattering stars piercing the grim winter darkness that hovered over them like a thick blanket
"Yup." He responded cheerily, and Max felt an instinctive urge to slap the man upside his head – which he had likely anticipated (hence the handcuffs), "How's the head?"
"Did you…" Max struggled to regain her memory and then felt hot anger flush in her face, "You knocked me out?!"
"Had to." Was his unapologetic reply as they whizzed past an overhead sign on the interstate, "You wouldn't have come quietly."
"Come where? Where the hell are we going?" Max demanded in a louder voice as she leant forward, hands still restrained at the small of her back, to peer out of the windshield screen.
"The Big Apple." Alec stated calmly, as though he was not in the least bit worried Max would find some way to head-butt him even in her captive state. Max temporarily abandoned attack mode in her quest for some answers.
"New York? Why?"
Alec gave her a sardonic eyebrow-raise in the rear-view mirror as if to kindly request his fellow X5 refrain from playing stupid.
Max narrowed her eyes quizzically, "You talked to Logan."
"Nope," Alec shifted gears smoothly as they switched lanes, "Your cell phone just needs a volume adjustment."
"Take off the handcuffs." Max ordered tersely, and Alec's lips twisted in mock-thought – his eyes spelled out the answer well enough.
"I dunno, Max." He stated and she began glancing around for something, anything that could aid her in making a break for it, "You might try to kick my ass or something – and seein' as we're driving at the moment, that's not very road-friendly."
"Safety first, is that it?" Max snapped virulently, and he nodded with a smirk of triumph at her in the rear-view.
"You got it."
"Fine." Max stated, and in a brief second she had unlocked the door beside her with her booted toes and kicked down the door handle.
"Max, what're you doin'…" Alec began in a wary voice, "Shit!" He suddenly yelped in protest as Max kicked the door open and a blast of freezing cold air whipped viciously through the car, "Max, we're on a highway, damn it!"
"Then give me the goddamn key!" She insisted over the blare of the wind, "Otherwise I'm dropping and rolling!"
"You'll get hit by every car in range before you make it off the road!" Alec had anger in his eyes now, temporarily dropping one hand from the steering wheel to reach out and grab Max's arm in a vice-grip.
"Then just give me the key, Alec!" Max was determined to have her way with this one. She couldn't believe the man's nerve – pulling her out of the fray right when things were heating up to boiling point. It made her livid.
"Alright!" He yelled, "For god's sake, Max, just get that fucking door closed; we're gonna get pulled over."
"Fine!" Max hooked the toe of her boot through the door handle and pulled it closed compliantly. Her heel slammed down on the lock before she raised her eyebrows acerbically at Alec in the rear-view, "Key?"
"When we stop for the night." The clipped edge to his tone suggested that was as far as he was going to budge. Max's lips pressed together in annoyance.
"What if I need to scratch my nose?"
"Or break mine in two?" Alec flashed her a short glare, "I think you'll live for another hour or so."
"Oh, right." Max squinted at him sardonically, "Cuz we can just pull into any random Motel and get a room for two."
"Relax, would you?" Alec rolled his eyes as though Max were epitomizing the term Drama Queen, "I got a plan."
"Oh yeah, which is what?" Max leant back against the leather of the seat and scowled.
"We just entered Iowa." Alec glanced at the GPS attached to his dashboard, "I got some friends in Sioux City; they'll put us up for a night no sweat.'
"Transgenics?" Max cocked her head skeptically, and Alec's shoulders stiffened.
"No. Does it matter?'
"Only if you're in every major headline with the words 'terrorist threat' in bold italics over your head."
"Max, these guys are cool, okay?" Alec's patience sounded strained, and Max resisted the urge to feel vindicated. Finally the man was on the receiving end of all his caution, "Just run with me on this."
'Why?" Max snapped as the car pulled off the interstate and onto an exit road, "Just to recap here, you knocked me out and handcuffed me in the backseat of your car. Trust isn't exactly something you've got a lot of drawing power on with me right now!"
"Oh right, cuz you would really have told me about Molko if I'd just waited on you to make a move." Alec's glare was grim and black as he sped the car up somewhat and glanced in a side-view mirror briefly.
"When there was time for it, yeah." Max argued in her defense, "Though even if I hadn't, you'd have no right to be angry."
"Oh yeah? Why's that exactly?"
"Because it's none of your business, that's why!" Max insisted as though it were obvious, "You keep worrying about everybody's problems except your own and then you wonder why you're all strung out 24-7!"
"Me?" Alec actually twisted in his seat to pin Max with an incredulous look, "You're preaching to the mirror, right?" She rolled her eyes, "No really, Max, this is exactly what your problem is, right here." It was Alec's turn to roll his eyes, "God," He muttered the rest of his sentence under his breath, but Max was fairly certain she caught the words 'fucking ridiculous' somewhere in the mix.
A perfect synopsis of the current situation.
"Alec, this isn't gonna help anything…" Max tried to reason as she leant forward once more before suddenly lurching to bang against the windowpane as the car shuddered with a heavy impact.
"What the hell was that?" Max demanded as she struggled to sit up while the car jostled once more. Alec was fighting for control of wheel as the vehicle went into a tailspin.
"We're getting bumped off the road!"
"Yeah I kinda got that!" Max let out a noise of protest as she was shoved into the space between her seat and Alec's with one swift move of the hand he reached behind him, "White's guys?"
"I dunno!" Alec yelled over his shoulder, "Whoever they are, they want us face-down in the asphalt – hang on!" The car swerved dramatically in a U-turn as Alec pulled it into a side alleyway.
"What are you doing?" Max began nervously as a sleek Hummer skidded to a halt at the entrance of the alley and backtracked down the lane. Alec reached around his seat, hauled her up and fiddled with her handcuffs, twisting the key in the lock and freeing Max's wrists.
"Standing my ground." Alec replied shortly as Max tossed the handcuffs aside and pushed open the passenger door.
"When this is over, remind me to kick your ass."
"Why don't you just focus on kicking theirs?" Alec ducked out of the car to stand beside Max as a pack of five, well-muscled men exited the Hummer, "Evening, gentlemen."
"494?" One of them queried, and Alec grimaced at him in response.
"Told you." The man nodded at his partners, "Both of'em at once. Imagine the bounty."
Max eyed them up and down critically, "Are you guys for real?"
A vicious smile and the cocking of a gun added weight to the man's response, "We're gonna take you to a friend of ours. He's promised to make it worth our while."
"Really?" Max edged a step closer, face still casual and even patronizing, "Hope so, cuz it's gonna cost you every inch of self-respect you've still managed to retain with a face that ugly."
The man snorted, and then suddenly his gun went off. Max and Alec were both long gone before the bullet punctured the windshield of their car.
Max popped up behind the gun-wielding man, shoving her knee into his and yanking his shoulder back, effectively sending him sprawling onto his back. Before he even hit the ground, however, Max had twisted the gun neatly out of his hand and whacked him across the head with it.
Alec had already taken one out by using the car jack his attacker had pulled from the trunk to clip him across the head. He launched a kick into the second man who moved to attack him, ducking under the staggered swing of a fist before landing one of his own. The man stumbled and then threw himself at Alec recklessly, clearly relying on his size to determine the outcome of the risky maneuver.
Alec jumped back from the body-slam, not eager to sully his jacket with the sleet and slime which licked at his feet, when he bumped into something and nearly tripped.
"Watch what you're doing!" Max hissed, jumping up quickly from where she had taken the brunt of the fall and leaping back to avoid a swing from the two that she had taken on.
"Me?" Alec complained, blocking a fist nearly caught his jaw while he gaped at Max, "You're the one with two left feet!" He slammed his elbow into the face of his attacker and the man grunted in pain, stumbling back to shield his broken nose.
"If you weren't stepping on'em all the time," Max retorted with only half of her usual sting as her attention turned to the crowbar being swung at her head, "They'd…" She grabbed it, shoving it upwards and head-butting its wielder, "be just fine!"
Alec's face twisted in bafflement as he grabbed the arm that the fourth attacker was swinging at him, twisting it up and planting a slug into the man's gut before following another one to his face, "What? Max, when have I ever stepped on your feet?"
"That convention…" Max came back smoothly, jumping up and slam-kicking her opponent in the head before twisting to land a kick with her other boot as she landed on one foot, "…last week at the White House? You almost broke my toe!"
"Well that," Alec spun around after landing a knock-out slug to finish his man off, "was cuz you were spilling valuable information 'bout our resources!"
Max rolled her eyes and kicked her fallen opponent in the face, causing him to groan and go still. "You overreacted to the little exchange of good will I had going with the President and nearly blew the whole deal!"
"Uh whatever, Max." Alec shook his head, clearly not considering further argument worth the effort as they both turned on the last remaining man, who was clutching his nose, blood streaming between his fingers as he stumbled back from them with fear in his eyes.
"So who exactly was gonna slip you some green stuff to hand us over?" Max queried, fists still curled suggestively by her hips as she took a step towards the man.
"Look, just…just…back off, okay?" He yelled, holding one hand in front of him and backing against the Hummer.
"Yeah, great idea." Alec nodded with a caustic scowl, "Just keep tellin' us what to do while we hand you your ass…"
"Okay!" The man cracked quicker then expected, sniffing at the blood in his nose as he glared viciously at the transgenics, "Name's Reeco. Caz over there was in touch with'im," He motioned to their motionless leader at Max's feet, "some kinda mafiosa guy. I dunno – that's all I got, I swear."
"Reeco?" Alec locked his jaw and glanced befuddled to his left for a moment before returning his gaze to the man, "Jimmy Reeco?"
"I told you, I don't know." The man panted, his hand inching toward the driver's door of the Hummer, and Max threw Alec a look of perplexity.
"You know this guy?"
"Who, Reeco? Yeah." Alec brushed past her and snagged up the man's collar, slamming him none too gently against the hood of the car, "You sure about this guy?"
"Y…yeah…"
"Good, cuz if you're lying, I'm gonna hunt you down and break your fucking neck." Alec's matter-of-fact statement caused Max to narrow her eyes in confusion. It was rare the X5 ever dished out threats of a lethal nature – especially over something as mundane to the transgenic race as being hunted by random individuals.
Though Alec did say he knew this Reeco person, Max mused as Alec shoved the man away with an order for him to 'move his goddamn truck outta the way'.
"You okay?" Max queried hesitantly as she helped Alec drag the four bodies clear of their car.
"Yeah." He eyed her oddly, almost as though questioning whether Max was 'okay'.
"Good." Max smiled, and then her fist hooked across his jaw and sent Alec's head snapping to the side, "That's for kidnapping me."
"You're welcome." Was Alec's unfazed response as he climbed into the driver's seat without so much as rubbing the sting out of his jaw – though Max knew it had to hurt.
"I didn't thank you for anything." She snapped out of reflex as she swung into the passenger's seat of the vehicle and slammed her door shut defiantly.
"You should." Alec informed her, revving the engine to life and backing rapidly out of the alleyway, "Now you can finally get those runes translated – God only knows what they actually say." Here he chuckled, "'If you can read this, get a life'…or maybe it says 'kick me' in Aramaic…better stay out of the Middle East there, Maxie, you never know what could…"
"Who's Reeco?' Max swiftly changed topics, somewhat irked at the mockery of her rune plight and not in the mood for being the alibi that got Alec off the hook.
"An old acquaintance." He pulled back onto the interstate with a resigned sigh, "Well more like a workmate really."
Max raised an eyebrow skeptically, "Doesn't sound like anybody I know at Jam Pony."
Alec winced in what was almost offense, "Max, you seriously think I rode the high live on minimum wage and tips? Please – this jacket costs more then Jam Pony's assets combined."
"So he was in the Andy business then?" Max pressed with a slight smirk, and Alec rolled his eyes.
"Somethin' like that."
"Something like that or that?"
"It's not important, Max." Alec's words carried a finality to then which convinced her that it was in fact very important, "Don't worry your head about it."
Max settled back in her seat with a determined silence, watching the orange lights on the highway flicker past.
"New York City?"
Alec smiled in triumph as he hiked up the radio, "New York City."