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.
Max and Alec need to have a talk...
Chapter Five
Max ignored everyone. Dr. Carr told her not to leave the hospital. Joshua begged her to stay where the doctor could help if something suddenly went wrong. She ignored security telling her not to leave with all of the reporters still around the building. She ignored checkpoint guards, their own guards at TC's gates... Everyone.
By the time she got to Command, Max was breathing hard, her chest hurt, and her clothes were scratching uncomfortably against her damp skin.
Everything in Command came to a halt when she skidded through the door. More people trailed in behind her, eager to find out what was going on. The rumors had to be flying like wildfire. Alec had shot her then gone missing, then the Psy-Ops people had been called in to deprogram Alec and the others, Alec had nearly died during the fight to save Secretary Gordon, then gone missing again. She was certain news of this latest fiasco with whatever she'd been given had already leaked. There was no telling what everyone else had made of all of it. If Mole said the troops were getting restless, then it was because their leaders had been out of commission way too long. It was a wonder she wasn't walking into a full-scale insurrection, or at the very least chaos.
All of which was secondary.
"Where is he?"
Mole stepped forward out of the crowd, chewing on his cigar and looking more dour than usual, which was saying something. "Your office." He jerked his head in that direction. "You screw up again?"
"No," she replied flatly. She rubbed at the gunshot wound in her chest absently. It was hurting more than it had been, but she put it down to breaking out of the hospital and running all the way back. It had been several days now and should have been well on its way to healed, but the last few days hadn't exactly been laid back. "I'm gonna go check on Alec. When I get back I want a full rundown on what you've got on Kincaid and the mole in the UN."
"Max, we've got another problem," Mole said gravely. "You need to be ready in case somebody challenges you."
Max suppressed a snarl at yet another thing trying to keep her from getting to Alec. There had been rumblings from the very start by other transgenics who thought they were better qualified to run Terminal City, Mole included, although he'd quickly come around.
Every group of people, particularly a bunch of specially bred super-soldiers, had a few dominant personalities who wanted to be in charge of a situation. She and Alec had been incommunicado for a few days now, which had left a temporary power vacuum. Given a few days she could easily reassert her place with a few carefully chosen words, and a few actions, but Max just didn't have time for nice right now.
"Somebody else wanna be in charge?" she roared, her eyes scanning the crowd, noting the people who refused to meet her gaze and the one or two who met it in clear challenge to her authority, most obviously a big, bulldog-like transgenic named Sig that she'd had a few problems with before. "Because I am beyond pissed right now and I will personally break anyone who even thinks about crossing me. We've got enough crap going on without this. I don't do politics. I kick ass. Anybody gets in the way of me making sure we all stay safe, the ass-kicking will descend from on high like you will not believe. Got it?"
The room became deathly silent as everyone held their breath, but there was no response. After giving Sig in particular a last personal warning, Max stopped glaring at the would-be leaders in the room and glanced at Mole who was smiling. She nearly rolled her eyes. Like most of Manticore's children, he clearly appreciated a good show of force. They all knew Max was willing to follow through. They also knew that Alec would be right behind her and with him a whole lot of friends. Max didn't carry the same clout as some of the others because of the '09er issue, but she had friends, friends with plenty of Manticore cred.
"Now, you people get that info together. I gotta talk to Alec." Max stalked past them all toward her office, once again staring down anyone who dared to meet her gaze.
She immediately dropped the pissed-off-warrior persona as soon as she reached the door. She turned the knob and nudged the door open to find Alec stretched out on the ratty old sofa. He was flat on his back and his hands were resting one on top of the other, almost posed, and she guessed he'd been carried in after he collapsed.
Max sat down, perching near his hip. He looked awful; pale, drawn, face lined with pain, definitely not her normal nothing-fazes-me husband. She set one hand over his, wrapping her fingers around them, frowning at how warm he felt. Her frown deepened when she realized he was awake, just refusing to open his eyes.
"Alec?"
"What?"
"You ok?"
"No."
"You wanna talk about it?"
"No."
Max sighed. "I'm not exactly having the best day either you know."
Finally, Alec opened his eyes. No matter how angry he was with her, she knew he would still worry about her. He had to have been beyond furious to have left her alone at the hospital. "You ok?" he asked, worry sneaking into his clipped tone.
"Fine. They did a bunch more tests to see if they can figure out what's going on. Nothing yet."
Alec pursed his lips, then he nodded and looked away from her. An awkward silence descended and Max fumbled blindly for how to bring up the topic that so badly needed to be discussed. Finally, as he usually did, Alec came to the rescue.
"So… kissed anyone lately?"
"Nope."
Alec's face clouded in anger. "Pretty sure I saw differently."
"Were you gonna give me a chance to explain before you ran off?"
Alec smirked bitterly. "Well, since I ran off already, that would be a no."
"You know I wouldn't-"
"I saw you, Max. I saw you with him."
"The virus is gone," Max said.
"I figured as much since he didn't drop dead in the middle of your makeout session." If anything, Alec was looking worse, his anger sapping what energy he was managing to muster.
"He was… happy," Max said, about as uncomfortable as it was possible to be. "He kissed me."
"You didn't look like you were fighting too hard."
"Did you see me slap him?"
Alec studied her, his cold anger faltering slightly. "He lose any teeth?"
"No. But not for lack of trying."
"Shame." Alec sniffed. "A few more years of Manticore training would have helped with that."
Max rolled her eyes. "I had plenty of training. Definitely enough to take out Logan. I just…" She shook her head, still upset at Logan's actions and at her own initial lack of reaction. "He surprised me. He can't quite get it through his head that we're over… never really were…"
"So he tries to win you back at your husband's bedside?" Alec asked, eyebrows raised. "Classy."
"Yeah."
"When we have a baby? Remind me not to invite him to the shower. I don't want him deciding the kid's his."
Max blinked, almost as shocked as she had been by Logan's kiss. Babies. Children. They'd never even discussed the possibility. She'd never even thought about it really.
"There a reason you look like you're gonna throw up?" Alec asked.
"I… it's just…"
"Cause I'm the one who saw you kissing Logan. If anyone has the right to want to throw up, it's me. I'm traumatized for life."
"I… uhh…"
Alec smirked, more amused now than anything else. "You plan on doing this every time I mention babies, Max?"
"I just… never…"
"You're a woman, right?"
"Yes," she answered, her brow furrowed at the direction this conversation had taken.
"And I'm a man, right?"
"Yes," she said again.
"And we have sex. Lots of it. Whenever the morons in this place give us a few minutes of down time between disasters."
Max actually blushed all the way to the roots of her hair. "Yes."
"Then would you mind not looking like a baby is an alien concept that's never going to happen? I have it on good authority that out here in the real world, babies are made when Mommy and Daddy get together on date night instead of a doctor and a test tube."
Max huffed in exasperation. "When exactly did I lose control of this conversation?"
Alec's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I think it was about the time I caught you kissing Logan."
Max leaned forward and kissed Alec. "I don't love him."
"And yet, the kissing happened."
Max knew how badly it hurt him. He was always a bit apprehensive around Logan. Her often overconfident husband became a possessive worry-wart around her ex, not that she could really blame him when incidents like this kept happening. Not kissing exactly, but Logan… always there… clearly not over her and trying to worm his way back in, refusing to accept that she belonged with someone else now. Since the shooting, Alec was even more uncertain of his place at her side.
"He surprised me," Max said again. "And if it makes you feel any better, I hit him really, really hard. Twice."
"Well, that's something at least," he replied grumpily.
"You gonna run away again?"
Alec sighed and shook his head tiredly. "Shouldn't have in the first place. Still don't know what they gave you. Still have to figure out what to do about Kincaid and his cronies. Still have to kick Logan's ass. The list goes on and on."
"It's good to have goals."
Alec smiled for the first time since she'd entered the office. "Well, what I really want to do is tear your clothes off and prove how much more of a man I am than Logan. It's the animal DNA. Can't be helped."
"Don't give me that." Max rolled her eyes, refusing to acknowledge the zing of anticipation that ran up her spine. "You're just being a guy." More seriously, however, she said, "Alec, I chose you before the virus was fixed and I'll choose you after."
Alec sat up, his lips pressed tightly together. Max knew he was desperate to keep from appearing weak, especially when he was feeling like Logan was encroaching on his territory. Rather than a smart aleck remark, as she expected, he raised a hand and rested it against her cheek. His skin was so warm, it almost felt like it was burning. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine," she said, but ruined it when she couldn't quite meet his eyes. They both knew something was coming, and judging by Kincaid's last effort, it was going to be bad.
"Thanks, Max. I am filled with confidence."
"You should be. I'm very hard to kill."
"Not nearly enough," he whispered, leaning forward and kissing her, just a tiny brushing of lips. He leaned back and his eyes traveled lower. In better times, she might have thought he was staring at her breasts, but she knew what he was seeing. His hand reached out, but didn't actually touch her chest. "Hard to say I'm the one who'll keep you safe, when I'm the one who tried to kill you."
Max grasped his hand and pressed it over the wound, forcing him to get past his fear of hurting her. "We gonna go through all this again or are you gonna man up?"
Alec smirked. "I already threatened to rip your clothes off and have my way with you. How much more manly do you want me to be, Maxie?"
"How about not a moron?"
"You're just no fun today," Alec complained. He slid his hand to rest against her throat and she realized he was checking her pulse, worried for her, but unwilling to ask again, or maybe he knew she still wouldn't give him a straight answer.
The truth was that something wasn't right. Her skin felt too tight for her body. The light coming through the windows was too bright, the air around her too heavy. There was nothing specifically wrong, but there was more on the way. She just didn't know what.
"Come on," Alec said, coming to a decision. "Let's go see the info Mole's got."
Max held out her hand and helped him to his feet. He swayed, one arm held protectively across his abdomen. "You shouldn't be standing," she scolded.
"And you shouldn't have left the hospital," he countered. "Even if it is being haunted by a kissing bandit."
Max just sighed. "We have work to do. I'll try not to die and you try not to keel over, ok?"
Alec smiled tightly. "Sounds like a plan."
More soon...