An Autumn Solstice
Disclaimer: Let me check . . . no, I still don't own Dark Angel.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: M/A
Summary: 'For the test of the heart is trouble . . .'
Author's Note: Blame my cartridge pen; it just doesn't know when to give the angst a rest.
April 2023
Terminal City was empty.
The streets were barren, all excepting a small black and grey cat casually perusing the upturned garbage bin for passable leftovers.
Standing in the centre of the city, just outside the transgenic headquarters, which also happened to be devoid of any sentient life, Logan could feel the pangs of panic peaking into a full blown anxiety attack.
He'd tried paging Max several times, but she'd failed to contact him once. Dread that something had gone disastrously wrong was a feeling Logan was unfortunately well accustomed to, but this time the anxiety was different, unnameable.
Transgenic hearing would have been most welcome at this point, but the cheers that seemed to resonate through the entire city just then was well within the human hearing range, and Logan felt himself jump at the sudden disturbance to the silence that had enveloped him. His head turned in the direction, and with hurried footsteps he followed the sounds of the voices of the masses.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
A huge cheer erupted from within the large mess hall. Packed together, the entire inhabitants of Terminal City stood shoulder to shoulder, watching as their mutual friend, Detective Ramone Clemente, took to the stage, ready to address a conference room filled with some of the most important politicians of the country.
"Nice work, pretty boy."
Alec smirked as he took a sidelong glance at his friend, "Well I like to think so," he returned with a smugness that only he could pull off and still come out the end as universally lovable as ever.
The mess hall had been converted into a cinema of sorts. With the huge white screen at the front, and the projector Alec had managed to score, together with a little bit of Dix's genius to hook them up to a live feed; it was like watching one huge widescreen television with your entire family, squashed together as if at a rock concert.
Someone hushed from behind for silence. That had little effect. Another transgenic yelled an emphatic, "Shut up!" That seemed to do the trick, as the room fell down to a manageable quiet.
Today was the day.
Today was the day that all hope rested on a sheet of paper and the people that would make those written words a reality. Freedom. It was a foreign word to them all. Alec didn't believe for a second that any of them actually knew what it meant let alone felt like – but instinct told them all they needed to know.
But Alec was a realist; hardened by all the lessons he'd learned on the outside; he knew that freedom would come at a price and that it would never be able to live up to all the glories of its promises. If he knew where he could score himself a pair of rose coloured glasses, he would have them perched on his nose by now, because as it was, being a pessimist sucked the fun out of everything. And for lack of a better way of putting it; it damn well sucked.
"So how do you reckon they'll vote?"
Alec turned slightly to look at the X5 who had spoken. Dewy was stood there, fingers in mouth, nervously biting his nails. Alec smirked at the sight, "Not sure – it could easily go either way."
"Well let's hope it goes our way," Mole chipped in.
Alec silently agreed.
The arguments for and against providing the transgenics with full citizenship and human rights had been presented. Clemente had given a faithful account of what it had been like working with themselves in creating and mass producing the vaccine, never hesitating once to paint the transgenics in whatever positive light he could. His statement that the government had created the situation they were now in, that it had been them who had forced the situation on the unknowing transgenics, and that they should take responsibility of their actions instead of trying to wipe their hands clean and scourge the stains of their own violation of basic human rights, was met with twitters of indignation amongst the politicians.
The response inside Terminal City was of wholehearted agreement and unity.
"He's good," Alec mused, as he watched the detective end his speech.
He should have continued listening to what he was saying. By the general atmosphere that was building up around him he was positive the concluding parts of Clemente's speech were nothing if not rousing, but Alec's focus had quite suddenly shifted to an entirely different sense altogether.
He had smelt her approach before he'd heard her. It was instinctive; his heart would give a little jaunt as if it had only just been kick-started into life. No obvious alterations could be noted in his outward appearance and demeanour, and so no one could suspect the havoc she wreaked inside him from just being in the same room.
"He definitely is," Max said coming up to stand beside the male X5.
Alec looked down at her, and could do nothing to stop the upturn of the edges of his mouth, "I thought you were watching from the comfort of your own office?"
"Nah," Max dismissed, "Looks like the party's down here."
Alec chuckled, "You could say that." The entire mess hall erupted once more into cheering and clapping as Clemente stepped down from the stage.
"Though I hope," he continued, shouting slightly over the ruckus, "We're not celebrating too soon."
Max smiled at him. He was certain his heart had just skipped a beat. "Nope," she said. "I think today's gonna be a good day."
And he believed her.
He no longer had reason to doubt her.
After all, it had been less than a month ago when she had renewed his hope of getting their friendship back on track. Her words that they would be okay, had slowly but surely turned out to be true. The effort had been huge on both sides – perhaps born from a common desire for the comforts of normality; both he and Max had worked hard to repair the gaping holes in their relationship. The wounds were still there of course – but that was to be expected. They wouldn't just heal overnight; but things were undoubtedly looking up.
He didn't particularly want to ask, since he really couldn't care less, but pleasantries mandated he did, and so doing his best to sound as casual as possible, he asked, "So where's Logan?"
The resulting response came as quite a shock.
Max's eyes bulged wide, her hand coming to cover her open mouth, "Damn!"
She turned on her heels hurriedly, and all Alec could do was watch with momentary bemusement. Once unfrozen from his spot, he followed her trying his best to catch up with the female X5. As it was, manoeuvring between the hundreds of transgenics in the hall was no easy feat, and he found it difficult keeping an eye on the mass of dark locks weaving its way around the throng of bodies that had been packed together like sardines in a tin.
"Max!" he called out.
She didn't hear him – the noise levels soaring once again.
"Max!" he tried again.
This time she heard him, and stopped. Turning around, she searched for his face, finding it in the crowd she gave him a sympathetic smile, "Sorry."
Alec with one last burst managed to find his way to stand in front of her, "What's going on?"
She grimaced, "I told Logan I'd be meeting him today for lunch."
"Today?" Alec asked, eyebrows raised, "But-"
"Yeah, I know. Well, I didn't know at the time I agreed to it. I mean we honestly didn't expect our political cause to get this far so quickly – so at the time Logan asked me to lunch, of course I said-"
"Whoa, hang on a second," Alec interrupted, "How long has Logan been planning this 'lunch'?" He even motioned the inverted commas with his hands, because though he didn't want to admit it, it seemed like the cyber-journalist had been preparing for something special with this 'lunch.' And Max's answer just confirmed it.
"Three weeks ago," she said.
Silence followed, in which the penny shortly dropped.
"Oh god," Max's eyes went wide, "No way," she stuttered.
God, Alec hoped she was right, because it didn't bear thinking about.
"He wouldn't," Max shook her head.
Alec said nothing, hope sparking in the pit of his stomach at her reluctance to believe the idea. But then the eternal pessimist in him would whine in his ear, that she was probably shocked but in actuality truly thrilled at the prospect.
She looked up at him, her brown eyes still wide. Alec was certain he saw pity and sympathy for him in them; and he felt like a fool, a fool who had let hope get the better of him again.
"Well you better go then."
He was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him again, or more likely hope playing twisted games with his heart, but for a mere beautiful second he thought he saw her hesitate. He thought he caught unwillingness in her stance – but the moment was fleeting, almost as if it had never been there in the first place.
She nodded mutely, and turned away.
And all he could do was stand there and watch.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
No, no, no.
Logan couldn't possibly be planning to do what she thought he was going to do.
She just couldn't deal with it.
But it made sense.
It was the only thing that did.
The clues had been there all along.
He'd been dropping them like anvils for the last couple of weeks.
And she just didn't want to think about it.
What the hell would she say?
What on Earth was she supposed to do?
And then there was Alec.
Oh, God.
With her head spinning mercilessly, her heart pounding in her chest, she could do nothing but watch her feet as she walked. Everything else around her was too much for her senses, as she tried desperately to focus on just one coherent thought. But it seemed she would not be granted the luxury of time, as she found herself barrelling head first into the soft chest of one of the two men who tortured her in her sleep.
"Logan," she stammered, taking a step back from him.
He didn't say anything as he looked down at her.
"I was just coming to look for you," she said.
He still said nothing.
"There's some good news," she smiled brightly; "We're finally getting a hearing. We're all waiting to see how the vote goes as to whether they pass the bill or not."
His jaw twitched slightly, before he opened his mouth. The words she could tell were strained, "So is that where everyone is?"
Max nodded, "Yeah, we're all packed in the mess hall watching the vote – its mayhem in there," she half smiled, hoping to elicit an emotional response of some sort from the man.
"I'm guessing you want to cancel lunch then?"
And there was her chance. She could turn away and return to the comforts of her own people, or go with the man she had once believed she would love forever. She had never been more certain than at that point of what Logan had been planning for weeks. He was paler the normal, his voice laced with anxiety, and his feet were moving non-stop – a few centimetres back and forth every three seconds or so.
The question wasn't so much about what Logan wanted; moreover the question was what she would say in answer.
She would have thought there would have been a semblance of hesitation in her answer, but the response that echoed in her heart was resoundingly unanimous.
It had been months since that one night when her entire world had spun on its axis, and completely realigned the stars in the night sky. Her eternal compass having been lost that night, she had struggled to set herself back on the path she had only ever known. Of course, the alignment of the stars had slowly but surely been corrected, perhaps not fully, perhaps never fully, but just enough to know where exactly her true North lay.
And the Earth shattering realisation that had only just encompassed her, in that very moment, was that her compass wasn't pointing towards the man in front of her, and perhaps never had been.
She had been reading it wrong.
"No," she shook her head, smiling brightly, "Lunch sounds good."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
A/N 2: Ok, so I think I went a little too heavy on the metaphor there – but it makes sense, to me at least!!! Now, this chapter was supposed to be short, confusing and as infuriating as hell as possible, although the more astute amongst you may be able to guess what I was hinting at with Logan's planned 'Lunch'. Any guesses? On another, I suppose related note, don't be deceived by the apparent 'fluffiness' of this chapter, it may look as if Max has taken a few steps in the right direction, but she's still got a whole lot of learning to do . . . I'm also sure there may be some of you with an eye for constructive criticism who may suggest that I've resolved the conflict between Max and Alec too quickly, however, in my defence – a month has passed, and things aren't all peachy yet.
And I know I said at the end of the last chapter that this chapter would be taking a while because of unavoidable exams, but I still feel the need to apologise to those of you still reading for the delay. As infuriating as this chapter may have been, I hope you still enjoyed it.
Ok, rambling over . . . please review!!!!
SmilinStar
xxx