"Hey, Little Fella."

Max turned and looked over her shoulder at the familiar sound of Joshua's voice. She'd come up to the roof to be alone, but she wasn't surprised the transgenic with a heaping helping of canine DNA had been able to track her down. She missed being out where she could go to the Space Needle for solitude. Now the best she could do was the roof, and it was a poor substitute.

She tried not to sound unhappy to see Joshua when she said, "Hey, Big Fella."

Joshua sat down next to her and sniffed the wind before looking at her. "Max okay?"

Max frowned. "Not really."

"What's wrong? Maybe I can help." Joshua flashed a toothy grin.

Max smirked. She reached out and rubbed Joshua's arm, then sighed. "Alec runs things around here." She watched Joshua to see how he reacted.

Joshua just nodded. "I know."

Max wasn't sure what to think about Joshua knowing what she didn't. Frankly, she always thought herself smarter than the dog-boy. "Guess I'm just knocked on my ass about that..." she laughed hollowly, "here I thought I was calling the shots."

"Max does. Alec does. Alpha male and alpha female."

"That would be fine, but apparently I only have 'alpha' status because most of TC thinks me and Alec are screwing each other," Max groused.

Joshua whined and cocked his head.

Max's jaw dropped. "Joshua... I thought you liked Logan!"

Joshua shrugged. "Logan okay for a human, not okay for Max."

"So you think me and Alec..."

"No... know you're not getting busy... but you should be."

Max just stared at Joshua, mouth agape.

Joshua looked at her expression and said, "Max and Alec, go together good. Max fill in Alec holes, Alec fill in Max holes."

"Sure, we work well together, compliment each other and all that, but we're just friends."

Joshua shook his head. "Max and Joshua just friends... it's different."

It was true enough that Max didn't feel the same way about Joshua as she did about Alec. But still.

"Don't you like Alec?" Joshua asked in a small voice.

Max's face screwed. "That's a hard question, Big Guy."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it just is. Sure, I like Alec, but he almost tries to get on my nerves. Sometimes I think that's how he gets his kicks is making me miserable."

"Hmmm... maybe Alec is like that because Max like that to Alec first."

Max looked up sharply. "What?"

Joshua looked up at his flag flying above Terminal City, still proud of his work, then looked down at Max. "Max isn't nice to Alec. Takes out her anger at everything on Alec."

Fighting her first inclination to argue, Max thought long and hard about that. And realized Joshua was right. She had been watching Alec a lot lately, and one of the many things she noticed was that Alec was not rude or mean to anyone else in TC. Not the way he bit at her sometimes. Alec kept the peace and got along with everyone. Got along with them far better than Max did. With everyone in TC, Max felt like she was always pulling teeth; they all seemed on a hair trigger to revolt and go against her. But not with Alec. He was kind with them, a comrade and friend, and they favored him for it.

Alec only flared up at Max, and usually only when she'd been tearing into him pretty good. She had to concede that she very well might bring it upon herself the way she tested Alec.

"I guess I do… sometimes…" It was hard to admit a flaw, but that it was to Joshua made it a little easier.

"And Alec usually pretty good about it, too," Joshua pointed out.

There was almost always a buffer of disinterest, sarcasm, and flippancy before Alec got mean and pushed back. A thinner buffer in Terminal City than there had been in the ordinary world, but still a neutral zone before anger.

"Well… yeah, I guess…"

"Why do you make Alec mad at you?" Joshua asked, so pointedly and innocently that Max drew up short.

She realized she didn't have a good answer. "I don't know. I just… do." Max thought back to the meeting that ended in their latest spat. "And I don't even try. I mean, earlier, I said something nice to Alec and it turned into the same old thing with us. It's just easier to be mean than nice with him."

Joshua chuffed and shifted to sit facing Max. "You know why I think Max mistreat Alec?"

She didn't like to think that word fit, but the sad fact was that it did. "What's that, Big Fella?"

"Max didn't belong outside. Max doesn't feel like she belongs here. No where to go. Makes Max scared. Manticore said fear not okay, fighting okay. But fighting everyone makes you alone. But Alec… Alec loyal. Won't leave. So Max is mean to Alec because can be… because Alec won't go."

Max mulled that over, stomach soured by how true it rang. She looked sidelong at Joshua, contemplative, then sighed. Her observations over the last couple of weeks ran through her mind. "I haven't given Alec enough credit. I know that."

Joshua clapped her on the shoulder, perhaps rougher than he meant to. "So Max fix it?"

Max pressed her lips together. She'd really given a lot of thought to just how much Alec did for her, and how she could always count on him in a pinch, despite what she said about him.

One thing was for certain, Alec deserved better than how Max had always treated him. Problem was, being nice and civil was something Max knew she was painfully bad at.

"I'm damn sure going to try, Big Fella."

To Be Continued…