Dog Will Have His Day
Summary: Alec is trying to catch the man who made him hurt Max, but he has to save her first... MA. Sequel to Loose the Hounds and Dogs of War.
A short chapter for today, but more to follow...
Chapter Three
Max awoke slowly. Sounds filtered in first; rubber shoe soles walking down a tiled floor, distant beeping of machines. Her sense of smell came next. Disinfectant barely covered the stench of death, illness, and all the other unpleasant things a body could produce when it wasn't in working order.
For several seconds, Max remained where she was, just listening, judging her surroundings. She was warm, and she felt safe, which she realized meant that Alec was most likely close by.
Alec.
Max's eyes popped open. Alec was in no shape to be left alone. He'd been counting on her to stand guard.
"Relax, Maxie. Just relax."
Max turned her head and saw Alec, the light coming through the window behind him too bright for her to see him clearly.
"Close the blinds," Alec ordered, obviously realizing the problem.
As the glare lessened, Alec's features came into focus. He looked even more worn and haggard than before. He was also standing which she knew was the last thing he needed to be doing. Max raised a hand and realized she was tethered by some sort of medical equipment. She reached her other hand to free herself, but was quickly stopped.
"Don't touch it, Max. You need it right now," Alec chided.
"I do?" The more time passed, the better she felt. In fact, she felt pretty good for having passed out and cracked her head on the bed railing. "Why aren't you lying down?" she demanded. She put both hands out and pushed herself up into a sitting position.
"Max, don't-" Alec started, but quickly stopped when he realized there was no point in it. Max knew she'd married a smart boy. He'd long since given up trying to keep her from doing anything she wanted to do. He reserved the right to mock her when it went wrong, but that would be for later.
"What happened?" she asked. Alec was standing right beside the bed, and she looked past him to see Joshua standing a few feet away.
"Little Fella sick." He frowned unhappily. "Medium Fella refuse to sleep. Stupid."
Max looked at Alec. "Sit," she ordered.
"Max, are you-"
"Sit, or I'm not talking to you."
"Not a dog," he mumbled but he obeyed, and Max thought she saw relief on his face as he sat on the other bed. Without waiting for permission, Joshua swooped in, grabbed Alec's legs, swung them up onto the bed and none too gently pressed Alec down with a hand on his chest. Alec bit off a cry and closed his eyes, breathing through his nose in an attempt to control the pain the action had caused, and she guessed it was for her benefit as much as Joshua's.
Max scrambled out of her bed and pulled the leads where they were attached to her as she slid to the floor. She was in a hospital gown and a quick look at the clock told her she'd been out for a while depending on whether it was AM or PM.
"Max asleep since yesterday," Joshua supplied helpfully.
Max just took the information in and added it to the rest. That was probably part of why she felt so good. She hadn't had that much sleep in months. She didn't just feel fine. She felt... invigorated.
Alec, however, looked like he was about five seconds from passing out. She hurried to him and set a hand against his cheek. His eyes were still closed tightly and an arm was wrapped around his abdomen, but he calmed at her touch. "Shhh... It's ok, Alec. I'm right here. I'm fine and you just need some down time, ok?"
Dr. Carr came into the room and stopped abruptly. "Max, what are you-"
"I'm fine," Max said through gritted teeth, although what she really wanted to do was scream.
"Max, you really-"
"I said I'm fine," she snapped. "Alec's not."
Dr. Carr sighed as if he was very put upon, and hurried to Alec's bed. "He hasn't rested since you passed out."
"Is he all right?"
The doctor ignored her. He simply pushed Alec's gown aside with no thought for his dignity and began checking his dressings. He pressed and prodded, and abruptly, as if a plug had been pulled, all of Alec's muscles relaxed.
Max's first reaction was to snap the doctor's neck, but he shook his head. "He's all right," he said quickly, turning to face Max. "His body's a mess and he's exhausted. That's all. Both of you need to rest, if you even understand what that word means, which I highly doubt."
"Can you help him?" Max demanded.
"He's already on almost everything we can give him and it's barely taking the edge off. Your bodies just metabolize it too fast."
"Sorry, Little Fella," Josh said, looking very humble.
Without waiting for permission, Dr. Carr pushed Max back toward her own bed. "Sit down and let me look at you," he said, his tone very annoyed. "And next time you pull all the sensors off, warn the nurses. As far as they were concerned, it looked like all of your alarms went off. I assured them you weren't dead, just stupid."
"I had to take care of Alec." And to her that was a perfect excuse for scaring the doctor.
Dr. Carr huffed and began his routine of checking her vitals as well as the dressing on her forehead where she'd split it open on the bedrail. Max remained silent, taking the time to give herself a more thorough internal check. She felt good, as if the world were a little more vivid than normal.
Max heard footsteps out in the hallway and tried not to roll her eyes. She could tell it was Logan before he knocked. Even without the exoskeleton, he had a slight halt in his walk from the months in the chair.
"Max?" he said, and he looked so happy to see her up and around that Max didn't have the heart to yell at him for once again intruding on something that had nothing to do with him.
"I'm fine," she said for what felt like the billionth time. "The doc here's just making sure."
"Everything does appear to be fine," Carr added, although he was frowning.
"What?"
"Max," he pulled the chart that had been hanging on the end of her bed, "all of your tests have come back within normal levels," he shrugged, "well, as normal as I can figure for one of you."
"So why did I black out?"
"Not for any reason I can tell. While you were out, your temperature spiked to what I would call dangerous levels for a normal person. Your blood pressure was through the roof, etc, but after a couple of hours everything returned to normal, once again for no apparent reason." He turned toward Logan. "That's why I asked Logan for help."
"I have resources that Dr. Carr doesn't," Logan explained. "He gave me several samples and I sent them to a friend at a lab I know of."
"You gave my samples to some stranger without my permission?" Max asked, very unhappy with the idea.
"He's a good guy, Max. He's helped me several times."
Something in Logan's demeanor was making Max very uncomfortable. He looked too eager, too excited.
"Dr. Carr, will you excuse us please?" Max asked.
"Of course," the man answered, sensing the rising tension in the room and making a swift retreat.
"You, too, Big Fella," she added.
"Joshua wait in empty room across hall," he said and pulled the hood of his jacket up as he headed for the door, eyeing Logan askance as he passed.
"What kind of lab is it?" Max asked, although she had a sneaking suspicion she already knew.
"He's a geneticist." Logan grinned.
"And?"
"And whatever they gave you... Max the virus is gone."
"What?"
Logan smiled broadly. "The retrovirus is gone. It's completely gone."
He strode forward, pulled Max into his arms and kissed her.
More soon... (although the evil grin I'm wearing says it might not be until Monday.)