Max studied Alec, who was sitting on the couch, with Ray curled up in his lap. He had showed her a stuffed frog he bought and she had introduced the frog to her duck and now they were pretending the frog and the duck were getting married. Max was surprised, she figured Alec would have cracked already and broke down Berrisford's door and demand he find someone more responsible to take Ray back. But he hadn't and for some reason Max felt a little proud. The old Alec wouldn't have even considered keeping Ray but this Alec was marrying her duck and frog.
"So if you two are done maybe we can get to fixing up your guest room," Max said with a smile on her lips, her hands on her hips.
"Come on Maxie have a little fun," Alec smiled, a real smile. Something twinged inside her at the use of the nickname, any other time he called her that she wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but this time she'd let it slide. Besides she only hated it because that's what Ben called her, and Alec wasn't Ben.. no matter how much they looked alike. Alec's eyes were warm and bright, especially when he laughed. But Ben's were cold and hard, to far gone, was the best way to put it.
"We can have fun later. Now we have work to do," She responded, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him up. He frowned and pulled Ray up off the couch settling her on his hip.
"Alright fine lets get to work," He sighed heavily. Somethings were still the same.
Alec's spare room had light blue wallpaper, the rest a much lighter pale green, thank God he had moved out of Brain's other green one, it reminded her of the sewers. Other than the playpen they set up in the corner for Ray to sit in while they work, it was completely bare.
"What should we do first", Alec smiled clapping his hands together. He looked different to Max, He wore a normal plain white T-shirt and blue jeans and his hair was in desperate need of a hair cut in her opinion, but he still seemed different. Happier.
They worked for two hours before the room was done. The crib had been moved from Alec's room to hers and Max set it up completely so Ray wasn't sleeping on Alec's old shirts, then they hung her clothes in the closet, Alec set up a shelf and they stacked up the books and toys they bought along with some stuff Berrisford left and unrolled the rug, they decided they needed it or else or the room would be too empty. All in all the room looked pretty great, and they celebrated by eating cheerios on the couch watching loony toons, Alec made a promise to go grocery shopping soon.
Max still couldn't shake that feeling that something else was happening, something was going to go wrong. It all seemed to good to be true. Everything had gotten so screwed up, and gotten more complicated after the flag raising. Logan stopped by TC every few days to help out and to see her, and he helped Dix look for signs for Sandaman. Max wondered how he would feel about her hanging out with Alec, It wasn't like she was together with either of them, her and Logan had gotten complicated and she tried to ignore the subject. And of course there was the virus. But she felt comfortable here, hanging out with Alec and his daughter watching loony toons and eating dried breakfast cereal, a far cry from the missions and fancy dinners Logan made.. but just as good.
That wasn't all, there was White to look out for. He'd gone MIA after the big fight. Alec felt off about his sudden vanish and upped the guards around TC and in the sewers, not wanting to be caught off guard for when he came back for revenge.
"Daddy," Ray mumbled. She'd started calling Alec that earlier today and Max wished she could have seen his face the first time she said it. The title at first had seemed weird, but now it was slowly becoming comfortable.
"Yeah," He mumbled back, no shark DNA so they were both tired, it was about 1 in the morning.
"I sleepy," She yawned, burying her head into his shoulder. Max smiled at them.
"I'm gonna get going so you guys can get some sleep," She said, standing up and grabbing her jacket off the table.
"Alright, I'll see ya later Max, thanks for everything," He yawned. Like father like daughter, Max thought.
She headed out the door but turned back one more time to see Alec curled up asleep on the couch with Ray tucked under his chin. She was good for him, a piece of Rachel and a little hope, and she'd do anything to help him keep it. Max felt weird thinking it but Alec was her best friend, maybe more someday. And she was quickly falling in love with the little girl to. It would be tough, and she felt it was far from over with transgenic troubles, but now was good and that's all that mattered.