Deadly Fix

Summary: Max, Alec, the cure, a hostage situation…

We're in the home stretch. Thanks for sticking with this one.

Chapter Seven

Max paced outside the room, questioning and re-questioning herself whether this was the right place for Alec. This was a research facility, not a hospital. Still, they knew about the viruses and it wasn't like a normal hospital would know what to do with a transgenic anyway.

Dr. Miller finally stepped out of the room and motioned for her to come over. "We have him stabilized for the moment. There isn't much we can do to be honest. Try and keep him comfortable, keep his temp from spiking again like when you brought him in, and hope his body catches up."

Hope. Not one of her stronger points. Cynicism, ass-kicking, general mayhem, distrust, emotional distance… those she could handle just fine. Hope might be a problem.

Max looked into the room where Alec was lying. "Can… can I touch him?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Is it safe? The virus… like with Logan."

The doctor finally caught on and shook his head. "Different sort of virus."

"I didn't… Did I set this off? When I touched him? After the 48 hours were up?"

Again the doctor shook his head. "His virus was coded for yours, not the other way round. His virus is just taking advantage of his fatigue."

She could touch him. Max didn't bother to hide the relief she felt at that, but it was immediately replaced by the more present problem. "Level with me," Max said straightly. "Can he do this?"

The doctor looked at her and Max had the troubling notion he was trying to assess how she would react to bad news. "I hope so." He hesitated, then added, "He's lived through worse."

"Did he really ask you for a gun when he came back sick at Manticore?"

The doctor blinked, startled by the question. "How did you-"

"Alec told me that's how he knew you from before."

The doctor's expression darkened and for the first time he wasn't the pleasant, helpful physician she'd come to know. He was something far more sinister, far uglier. He was a man capable of doing the things that Manticore required.

"He was already half dead by the time he got back from the mission. It wasn't pretty. We knew what the virus would do in theory, but we'd never actually seen it run its full course."

"You mean kill someone."

"Yes. To be honest, he was in such bad shape, I don't know how he managed to get back to the base."

"So, he was miserable, dying and you refused to kill him," Max said. She could tell from the look on his face that the doctor didn't want to discuss it, but now that she had the chance she couldn't deny her curiosity. "Manticore put down wounded animals. Why not Alec?"

"The virus was intended to be lethal and they wanted to know why he wasn't dead. He was isolated and we were ordered not to give any treatment so the effects of the virus wouldn't be impacted. The results were to be turned over to the bio-warfare division."

"How long?"

"Three weeks."

Max's jaw dropped. "Weeks?"

"He was supposed to die," the doctor said almost defensively. "He should have. It would have been easier."

Max shook her head. Alec's survival skills had always been impressive. He adapted, he schemed, he fought and he survived. He'd asked for a gun, even as his own body was refusing to give up. "So it went on and on, but Alec just wouldn't die."

"Transgenic constitution," the doctor said grimly. "He just wouldn't go."

"He begged you for a gun."

"He asked for a lot of things." None of them pleasant to remember, Max could see. "I left not long after that. Just couldn't stomach it anymore." Dr. Miller cleared his throat suddenly, shrugging the tension from his shoulders as he pushed the memories back to whatever dark place he kept them. "You should go sit with him. I'll check back shortly."

He left and Max had no other choice but to enter the room. Alec was lying on the bed, though it was more like a cot. She supposed it was the best they could do since this wasn't actually what they were geared for. Alec was pale as a ghost, still wearing the clothes he had been when she'd brought him in. He was covered in a thin sheen of perspiration, lying deathly still, his breathing shallow. He was hooked up to surprisingly little equipment, but Max knew they were really just monitoring him. A transgenic's system was better than almost anything medicine could offer. Either Alec's body could beat the virus or it couldn't.

Max grabbed a little stool on rollers and moved it to Alec's bedside. The eyes that were the real window into Alec's weary, tarnished soul remained closed, keeping him locked away from her. He looked peaceful and so very young. With his eyes open, she was always aware that he was neither. Once again Max cursed Manticore and its parenting skills that had forced its children to wear nearly impenetrable masks.

"Alec?" Max said, her voice sounding loud in the quiet room. "Can you hear me?" There was no response and Max clenched her fists in frustration. Alec was never quiet. He was never still. Even when he'd been shot during the Jam Pony incident he'd been so… alive. He'd been fast and fighting and quick-witted. He'd been… Alec. To be so still, he had to be dy-

No. He was sick. Alec was sick.

Max cleared her throat of the sudden constriction there. "You should have seen it, Alec. Logan pissed me off and I sent him home. You would have loved it."

There was no response at all. Alec's face was turned slightly toward her, beautiful even in illness, even under the unforgiving florescent lights. Before she'd even realized what she was doing she brought her hand up and smoothed her fingers over his brow, down the bridge of his nose. She brushed her thumb across his lips and finally set her hand against his too-warm cheek.

"I hope you realize, I'm gonna kick your ass when you wake up. I mean, you've pulled a lot of stunts, but this takes the cake." She watched him, waiting for his telltale smirk to appear to let the world know how proud he was of each and every one of those stunts, but there was nothing.

"You should have told me, Alec," she said angrily. "You should have told me you were sick." Max felt the urge to shake him, to scream, to hit something welling up inside her again. "You are more important than the cure, you idiot. You were more important back when I couldn't let your head explode even though I wanted you dead myself. How much more important do you think you are now?" She frowned furiously. "Of all times to go noble. I count on you to look after yourself, you moron."

Max leaned forward and kissed him, matching his full lips to hers. It was more than a chaste kiss. She was reminding him he was still alive and that she was waiting for him to wake up. Max ended the kiss, but couldn't bring herself to completely break contact with him. She set her forehead against his.

"So I guess you still like me a little?"

Max gasped and sat back heavily on the rolling stool. Alec's beautiful green eyes, bright with fever, were open. As she watched, a completely self-satisfied grin began to appear on his lips.

"You kiss all the guys you visit in the hospital?" Alec asked, barely more than a croak.

"You jerk!" She stood up so that she could properly look down at him. "You were awake!"

Alec's grin grew, though Max could see how exhausted he was, fighting to stay awake. He brought a hand up and only managed to set it against his chest, although she thought he'd intended to do something more. She leaned forward and took his hand and the resulting sigh let her know she had guessed correctly.

"Hated to interrupt you," he said, the words slurred. "Haven't heard you talk that much since the last time you were trying to inspire the troops."

"Were you listening any more now than you were then?" she asked tartly.

"Always listen to you, Maxie," he said, his eyes already starting to close again.

"But you do whatever you want to anyway," Max muttered, although even to her own ears it sounded more indulgent than angry. She turned at the sound of a knock on the door. "Yes?"

A woman walked in wearing a full police uniform. Max wasn't sure why, but she felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck. The woman wasn't looking at her. She was looking at Alec.

Max saw a blur and the woman's gun was out of her holster and aimed at Alec's head. Not a cop. A transgenic. Not one from Terminal City. No one she knew.

"I snuck into police headquarters," the woman said calmly. "I saw the video you made."

Max dared a glance and saw that Alec's eyes were open again, adrenaline bringing him wide awake.

"You killed 017. You betrayed him and you killed him." Max saw tears run down the woman's face, but her aim never wavered as her finger tightened on the trigger. "You betrayed one of your own, and for that you have to die."

The finale tomorrow…