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.
Logan had just shown up to cause problems...
Chapter Four
Max was stunned. Beyond stunned. She was completely appalled. Logan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her flush against him and Max was so surprised, she was totally immobilized.
Logan kissed her like a thirsty man who'd happened upon an oasis in the desert. He was desperate, almost pawing at her in his need for her to respond.
It was the tiniest sound that broke the spell that was holding her still. It was indrawn breath, as if someone had been startled. Max tore herself away from Logan and turned toward Alec. His eyes, which she prayed would be closed, were open and staring at her.
Max loved those eyes. She counted on them, relied on them, needed them to tell her what her idiot husband was thinking when his mouth refused to tell her, whether it was because it was too painful, or because he was trying to protect her, or just because he enjoyed being a sneaky jerk who drove her crazy.
Now, those eyes were open and watching her like a hawk, but they gave away absolutely nothing. It was worse than if he were angry. It was worse than if he were heartbroken. Max had barely convinced Alec to come back with her after he ran away to protect her. He'd already been closing himself off before then, sure that because of the Manticore programming he would hurt her worse than he already had.
Alec blinked slowly, exhaustion once again dragging at him, and finally his eyes closed again. Max forced herself to look away from him, and turned back toward Logan.
"So I can touch you now?" she asked, wanting to be absolutely certain.
Logan nodded happily.
"Good." Max leaned back, cocked her arm, and smacked Logan hard enough that he staggered back.
"Max?" he said, confusion on his face. He rubbed his cheek where Max could already see a bright red handprint forming. The confusion on his face made her want to smack him again.
"What were you thinking?" she demanded, far more loudly than was polite for a hospital.
"I was..." He just gaped like a landed fish. "But... you're cured..."
"So. WHAT," she bit out. "You kiss me in front of Alec?"
"But this changes-"
Max smacked him again and it felt great. She could touch him again. She'd never accidentally bump him and kill him. She didn't have to concentrate on exactly where she was at all times, just in case. She was free of something that had burdened her for so long and sent her life in so many directions she'd never dreamt. She could touch Logan again and that meant she could hit him again if he ever put his lips anywhere near her.
"This doesn't change anything." Max backed up toward Alec, wanting to protect him or shield him, or if nothing else just to be near him. She hated that in the middle of all they were going through, he'd had to see that.
"Max, the only reason you're with him-"
Max clenched her fists and ordered herself not to march across the room and take him down. "I am with Alec because I love him. I married him because I love him."
Logan made a huffing sort of sound, his expression turning to something akin to pity. "If that's what you're worried about, you know the marriage wasn't legal."
Max gritted her teeth again, furious that Logan continued to throw it at her that the government still refused to acknowledge them as citizens. They were good enough to do the dirty work, but not good enough to allow them to marry legally. Still, Max and Alec's ceremony had been legal in every way that mattered to her.
"I love him. That's it." Max had long since moved past her uncertain feelings for Logan, although Logan still refused to believe it. He still continued to think of her as settling for second best because there was no other choice. "Logan, I've said this before and I'll keep saying it until you believe it. You are my friend. But I love Alec."
"I thought..." Logan backed up to the wall and slumped into a chair, as if he'd lost all energy. "I hoped..."
"I know," Max said, her anger draining away. "You need to stop."
Her abruptness seemed to stun him even further. For several seconds, they remained frozen just looking at each other until finally, Logan simply nodded. "I'm a little slow sometimes," he said.
"About this?" she said. "Yeah." Max squared her shoulders. "Now, I don't want to talk about this anymore. What else did you find out about what they gave me?"
Logan sighed and turned away, apparently no longer able to look at her. "He's still analyzing. He found some oddities while he was studying the virus and wants to consult with Dr. Carr."
"So we still don't know." Just the thought made her skin itch. She couldn't deny that there was something going on since she'd collapsed the day before. That and there was... something. She felt different somehow. She just wasn't sure if it was her imagination since she couldn't actually pin down what was different or if there was something going on she should recognize.
"He'll figure it out, Max," Logan assured her.
"Then maybe you ought to get Dr. Carr in touch with this geneticist," Max suggested, although her tone implied Get Out.
"Right." He stood up, paused as if he wanted to say something else, then finally headed toward the door. "Goodbye, Max."
Max turned around and looked down at Alec. He was definitely asleep and she had to fight to keep from waking him up. She wanted so badly to talk to him. She needed to explain what Alec had actually seen, rather than what he thought he'd seen. She knew nothing would be right until they could talk. Even now, she could see his eyes moving beneath his lids, a telltale sign of his troubled dreams. Alec already had enough of those and she certainly hadn't meant to add to them.
"Max?"
She didn't bother to turn around at the sound of Dr. Carr's voice. "What?"
"We need to run some tests," he said. "We ran quite a few while you were out, but we'd like to run more now that you're awake and can give us some feedback, as well as see if anything has changed from the earlier tests."
"Great," she said, although she felt it was anything but.
"Come with me. We'll take care of this as quickly as possible."
Max frowned and looked down at her sleeping husband. She brushed the backs of her fingers over his cheek, surprised at how warm he felt, warmer even than normal, but she supposed it couldn't be helped. Alec was a mess and he refused to rest.
"You'll be back before he wakes up," Dr. Carr told her.
Max sighed unhappily, giving Alec one last look. "I've heard that one before," she muttered, but she turned and followed the doctor out. Max knocked on the room across the hall and it opened almost immediately to reveal an anxious Joshua. "Big Fella, I need you to stay with Alec."
"Joshua watch him," he promised.
"If he wakes up, don't let him do anything stupid." She had a terrible feeling she knew how Alec was going to react to what he'd seen.
"Little Fella!" Joshua burst into the exam room, completely ignoring the normal protocol of entering a room where people might be in the middle of a procedure not meant to be shared with the public.
Max hopped down off the table, mindful that the gown she was wearing was a little breezier than her normal clothing. The floor was also so cold she thought her toes might be in danger of frostbite. "What's the matter, Josh?" she asked, although she was fairly certain she already knew.
"Medium Fella gone." Joshua was out of breath and clearly flustered. Max didn't even want to think about what kind of feathers he'd ruffled by running through the hospital. Joshua just couldn't hide in plain sight like the rest of them. She imagined he'd been pretty much confined to her room after sneaking into the hospital.
"What happened?" Max demanded. "I thought you were with him?"
Joshua looked down and wrung his hands. "Joshua fall asleep. When wake up, no Medium Fella."
"This is not happening." Max wanted to scream in frustration. They didn't have any security with them because the hospital absolutely refused to let anyone loiter who was not either a patient or directly related to a patient. The hospital administrator had said the normal hospital security was sufficient. The idiot was only concerned with keeping the reporters out, leaving Max open to attack and Alec without one of their people on hand to keep him from doing anything else stupid. And now he had.
"I need a phone," she barked, sounding less like a diplomat and more like a really pissed off drill sergeant.
Dr. Carr quickly handed over his cell phone and Max snapped it open and dialed Command.
"What did you screw up now?" Mole asked.
"Cut the attitude. Alec's gone again."
Mole sighed audibly. "Have I mentioned how much grief you two cause in my nice, calm little world?" he growled.
"Calm?" Max snapped, despite being annoyed at herself for falling into the useless argument. "We live in a war zone. Half the city wants us dead."
"And you and Pretty Boy manage to wander into that half of the city on a daily basis. It takes talent to have a sense of direction that bad."
"Can you find him?" she asked. "Do his clothes still have the tracker in them? If they don't then I need a team-"
"Calm down," Mole ordered. "He's here."
That brought Max up short. "He's there?"
"He came in a couple of minutes ago."
"Keep him there," she said, already mentally calculating how long it would take her to get back to Terminal City. "I'm on my way."
"Oh, he's not going anywhere. He passed out about thirty seconds after he got inside the gates."
Max felt her insides clench and a lump immediately form in her throat. "Is... is he ok?"
"He looks like crap on toast."
"Does he need-"
"Just get back here. The troops are getting restless."
"What do you mean restless?" she asked, a new worry creeping in. She'd like to say that she trusted her fellow transgenics, but collectively they had so many issues they might as well have a library. "Someone causing problems?"
Mole's voice had lost all hint of playing, not that there was ever very much. "Just get back here. Now."
More soon...