Alec had left the motel and was halfway across the parking lot when he paused. Something in his mind was telling him to go back. He shook the feeling off as just being his nerves. He was obviously worried that he'd ruined his friendship with Max and all their progress. That plus the fact he wasn't relishing spending the night on his own. It just felt...wrong. 'God! That woman is so frustrating she makes me wanna scream! Where the hell does she get off?!' Suddenly, his barcode tingled in warning and he felt the hairs on his neck stand up. That was enough to draw him out of his reflections and into awareness again. His eyes scanned for danger. Although he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary his instincts were now screaming at him to return to Max and he decided it was a good idea.
Max had just started down the corridor after Alec. She had just rounded the corner when she walked straight into a chest. She didn't have to look up to know it was him, she knew by the way she fitted against his body and by his warm spicy almost scent. "Alec!" she grabbed his forearms and tried to get his attention but he wasn't looking at her. He was obviously trying to ignore her so he was still mad – time to make the peace! "Alec, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" she was silenced by Alec's hand over her mouth and he pulled her against his chest, his eyes scanning the corridor. Max saw the tension causing the muscle in his jaw to jump and she could hear his heart beating fast with adrenaline but mostly her senses were warning her of impending threat. Pulling away she scanned the corridor behind them for threat. She was about to turn back to Alec when her eyes caught the red laser flickering and aiming for Alec. Her eyes widened and she pushed him behind her and into the other corridor just as a muffled pop echoed in the air. She felt her body jar when it impacted against the wall and her legs gave way.
Alec was considering the possibility of retrieving their things before they ran for it when he suddenly found himself thrust forward by Max. The suddenness off it causing him to stumble to the floor. He was back on his feet in a moment though because he had heard a noise as he fell that his mind had instantly identified. It was a noise so familiar to him that it could only be made by one thing. He'd worked with one for so long and so well that it was as familiar sounding as a baby grand piano. But this was no piano. He knew that and right now he knew he had to get to Max. Scrambling back, he rounded the corner without care, almost stumbling again when he saw Max slump to the floor but his instincts had thankfully kicked in and he yanked her body towards him and dragged her out of any further harms way.
Alec cursed himself when he saw that Max had taken a shot to the shoulder. He looked at her, his eyes asking whether she was good to carry herself outta there and she nodded. Getting up, they ran for their room and burst in prepared for any attackers. Luckily there wasn't anybody there so Alec grabbed their holdalls while Max checked the window for any snipers or other company. It looked safe so she turned back and signalled all clear to Alec. Hurrying, as they knew to expect their attackers to appear soon to finish the job properly they climbed out of the window. He knew that as they didn't have time to use ropes it was a risk. Max's shoulder was an added one so he had refused to let her carry a holdall, all three now hanging from their straps that he'd thrown across his body.
Halfway down their descent, Max's shoulder, which was actually starting to throb with pain, gave way and she lost her grip. She let out a gasp causing Alec to snap his head in her direction. His heart rate tripled and he almost lost his own grip. He saw her dangling there helplessly; hanging on by just her fingertips and her panic stricken eyes held his for a moment before her fingers slipped. At the same time, his arm reacted, letting go, grasping the air for her. Relief flowed through him as his fingers closed around the fabric of a sleeve. He grunted aloud at the pain that ran through the arm that clung to the wall, holding them up. Hurrying, he grit his teeth and grunted as he yanked her up by the sleeve, releasing her for a split second before securing his arm around her waist. She clung to him as he scaled down the rest of the wall and shot him a grateful look as they touched the floor. He didn't have time to acknowledge it though. They were being hunted by god knows who; Max was hurt - he had to get them out of there.
He pulled his Glock from inside his leather jacket and grabbed Max's hand with the other, leading them through the lot to their car, keeping to the shadows and trying to spot their sniper. As they approached the car Alec pulled Max down to a crouching position, shielding their bodies behind the car. He frowned wondering why the guy hadn't made another move yet. He put down their bags and motioned for Max to stay where she was for a second while he checked things out.
He peered over the car and scanned the area as he edged forward, still crouching so that he could dive for cover if he needed to. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a brief flicker of movement. Not wanting to alert the approaching figure, he pretended to be focussed on the sight ahead of him. at the last moment he span around, pushing off his feet and springing back. His Glock raised, he fired at the figure before it had a chance to attack. A heavy body fell at his feet but Alec took in the red hair and immediately went on high alert. 'Familiars! How the hell did they track us down?' but no sooner had he had time to consider this than he had to scramble for cover as shots were fired repeatedly in his direction. "Fuck!" he cursed as he felt a burning pain flare up his left flank. Ignoring the pain, he hurried back to Max.
His breath left him, his eyes widening in horror, and he felt the colour rush from his face when he returned to where he'd left her. She wasn't there! The bags were there but she had disappeared. Not caring, he stood up and ran, calling her name and scanning the lot for her, narrowly avoiding the bullets that were flying by his head. He heard a small muffled cry and he ran towards the shadows. He rounded the corner of the building in time to see three Familiars dragging Max into a truck. She was resisting furiously, kicking and struggling to get free. He blurred to reach them, striking out at the Familiar that had dared to step into his path and separate him from Max. He knew he had little time to get rid of her; he had to get to Max before they dragged her to White. He executed a volley of uppercuts and well placed body shots to get her to drop her guard before he grasped her head and twisted his body with hers snapping her neck. Dropping her body he made his way to Max who was still holding up her resistance to the Familiars. He reached her in time to grab a hold of Max's outstretched hand, yanking her out of their grasp just as the truck pulled away. She cried out again, in pain. He'd damn near dislocated her wounded arm! But before she had time to recover, he had hauled her against him and blurred, weaving side to side, away from the Familiars, stumbling once or twice amidst the flurry of bullets that were being fired at them.
He practically threw her into the car with their bags and slammed the car into gear; throwing it into reverse he swung it in a haphazard 180 before it screeched out of the lot in the opposite direction to the Familiars. He knew he had to put as much distance between them as he could. Thankfully, Max had filled the tank with juice earlier so they wouldn't be running out soon. Grabbing the wheel with one hand he yanked his belt off with his free hand and held it in his teeth. Max looked across at him and he handed her the belt. Motioning to his leg, he told her to make a tourniquet around his thigh. That was the first time Max had noticed he'd taken a shot through the leg. As she did as he'd asked her eyes also took in the wet patch on his jumper and she yanked it up a little and let out a small cry, causing Alec to jerk and look at her. "You're hurt Alec!" she explained as her fingers gently brushed the raw oozing skin around his ribs.
"Yeah, son of a bitch caught me and it grazed my left side a little" he explained.
"Let me drive Alec! You need to see to that"
"Can't stop right now Maxie, I gotta put as much distance as we can between us and those crazy cult bastards"
He glanced in his rear view to see if they were catching up but there was nothing in the disappearing horizon.
"Tie something round your shoulder Maxie, you gotta staunch the bleeding" he instructed.
She searched around their things and found a hand towel. Tearing it into strips she tied one around her shoulder before leaning across towards him. Lifting the jumper away, she gently cleaned away the blood before too much of it dried to his skin. She was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't notice his breath hitch at her closeness and from the feel of her warm breath on his skin as she expelled it and her surprisingly soft fingers that felt like they were caressing his skin whilst she worked. He felt his body grow uncomfortably hot and he shifted a little in his seat trying to control his reactions to her.
Thinking that he was either in pain or still pissed, Max drew away and whispered a soft "sorry" before turning to look out of the passenger window. Alec glanced at her and wondered what had happened before he remembered; he'd totally blown up at her earlier, taking his frustrations out on her. Yeah she obviously thought she deserved it and had tried apologising but she was probably more than a little pissed with him too, especially when he'd brushed her off while he'd gone into his soldier mode… 'Just great smart Alec!' he criticized himself silently and he let out a loud sigh.
The rest of the drive passed by in a mutual vow of silence between them both. They took the time to digest what had happened, what had almost happened and try to put their thoughts in order as to how it had made them realise one or two things. Finally Alec pulled into a garage of a long since abandoned home that had probably belonged to a wealthy resident of the town they were in but who had got out of dodge when the pulse had hit. The guy probably had a quaint villa in Spain or something that he'd moved to. Closing the vandalised, heavily graffitied garage door to conceal the car, Max and Alec made their way into the house.
Eventually they found themselves a room in the attic of the house that was still habitable and hadn't been vandalised or used as a den by drug addicts at one point or another since the house had been left to fall into deprivation. Max went straight into the en suite and managed to rustle up a clean bowl of water..cold..but it'd have to do.
When she stepped back into the room, Alec was stood facing her, and they stared at one another for a moment not really sure where they stood with one another anymore. Feeling guilty for the tension between them, she glanced down in shame. Alec stiffened immediately but hissed when he felt the skin on his torso snag against the jumper he had on. His pain brought Max's eyes back to him and she straightened her shoulders, telling herself it wasn't any use beating herself up over this. The only thing she could do now was try to salvage things by helping him. She walked over to him and placed the bowl beside the bed and turned towards him. Staring boldly into his eyes, she reached out to grasp the hem of his jumper, slowly lifting it up. He saw her flinch when he winced at the burning heat that had flared as his fabric clung to bits of his skin and blood and a feeling sprang low in his stomach as he took in the fact that she still cared enough to be pained by his pain. He raised his arms as she pulled it over him and then turned back to her expectantly. He wasn't sure what she was doing but he would go along with it seeing as she seemed to be trying to restore their friendship.
She stepped away, found the rest of the towel she'd used earlier and soaked it in the water. Turning back to him, she washed the wound carefully. He grit his teeth to suppress the urge to hiss. He didn't want her to feel bad. Carefully, she wrapped the wound up with a clean bandage from the kit they carried with them. In their line of work, a kit was a must. He stepped back when she was done when she finally spoke:
"Alec…your jeans" green eyes flicked up to hers "they need to come off if we're gonna take a look" she gestured to his leg and the tourniquet. She turned back to get out more clean bandages and set up a suture kit. As he removed his jeans he glanced up at her and sighed as he though how this kind of situation would have gone down had things not been so awkward between them. He'd thought of at least eight decent remarks he could have made when she'd told him to off his pants. Clad in his boxers, he cleared his throat signalling he was done. He wasn't really sure he should say anything to her; he didn't trust himself not to say something to screw things up again.
She gently pushed him so that he fell back and sat on the edge of the bed and then knelt down on the floor. As she began cleaning his wound she thought long and hard about the things that she'd been trying to sort through during the drive. She knew Alec cared about her..alot. She'd seen his reactions to when they were in danger and he'd risked his life enough times in the last few hours to show she really mattered to him. She'd heard the fear and desperation in his voice as he'd called out for her when the Familiars had grabbed her. She'd seen it in his eyes when her fingers slipped. She felt it in the way he'd held her tightly to him. Truth was, she'd felt it in all of his actions with her since they had gone on the run together…growing in intensity with time.
As she rinsed the cloth and watched as the water grew a dark pinky red she felt sickened at the sight and a pain stroke through her at the thought he was hurt. The blood was a stark reminder of his mortality. She could have lost him today; he could have died saving her. 'Just like everyone else I ever loved….' She bit her lip and held back the tears that threatened to spill. She admitted it now. Somewhere along the lines, she had fallen head over heels, crazy in love with Alec. She'd been so bitchy with him to fight the attraction and familiarity she felt for him. This guy was Manticore… he tried to kill her!! But he hadn't. And from that day onwards she'd fought stubbornly against the affinity she felt for him. It was easy when he had always been arrogant, conceited and selfish around her, and she had Logan but not now. Not now that she'd gotten see both men for who they really were. Now she knew the reason why she had always been so reluctantly drawn to him. There had always been something in him, she'd seen a glimmer of it the night he'd almost killed her and more when Rachel died. But he'd taken down her every defence little by little; everyday since the day he let her in.
She didn't love Logan; she didn't think she ever really had. He was the first human who had been attracted to her despite knowing that she was a transgenic, but he didn't like that she was. He had tried to change her. She'd mistaken that for love. Alec knew who she really was, and he didn't have to accept anything about her. He was the first guy she'd ever felt such intense feelings for. He made her feel so alive. Around him she could be passionate, aggressive, angry….but also upset, vulnerable….carefree. She sighed softly. 'But he doesn't feel the same way back. He still loves Rachel. Judging by his reaction, very much so. In any case, he's not ready to hear any of this. Maybe he'll grow to feel the same way in time. But if not, I guess just being together as whatever we are, is enough. It has to be'.
A/N: Told ya it'd be pretty quick getting this next chap out. Actually I over wrote again so I've split this with the next chap, wish it was as easy writing up my dissertation though… that's taking me forever to write!! Oh well, we all gots to have priorities!