Disclaimer: I still don't own Dark Angel. This is not for profit.
A/N: Hey, all! Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to Pinkbeachlulu for taking the time to review! You are lovely! :) Here's the next part, without further ado.

Max decided that Alec should probably never have a girly panic attack. It would totally kill his rep with the female half of the species. She had almost never seen Alec without his cock-sure, devil-may-care grin. She had seen him briefly sad or angry, annoyed or even, very briefly, serious. But never had she seen his handsome face dissolve into a look of bug-eyed, lip-curled horror like it was now. It wasn't a good look for him.

Max moved her arms, and watched in the mirror as Alec's hands reached up suddenly to touch his face, groping desperately for reality. "How the hell… did this happen?" Max breathed out loud to the empty bathroom. Alec's voice sounded pinched. Max jumped before she could stop herself and realized that it was still just her in the apartment.

"Ohmigod… There's no way this is really happening!" Her eyes danced around as her mind worked furiously to make sense of the situation. "Okay, so… This is some really trippy head-rush I'm having from… food poisoning. Yeah, I thought that pizza yesterday tasted kinda off." Had she eaten pizza yesterday? Part of her mind said no, and the other swore she had, even conjured the image of a greasy cardboard box of pizza growing cold. He'd shrugged and grabbed another slice, telling himself it'd be fine. "I'm gonna close my eyes and count to ten… and maybe pinch myself… and when I open my eyes again, this nightmare will be over, I'll be in my right mind again… and body."

Max squeezed her eyes shut and counted slowly to ten while reaching up to twist a bit of skin under her clavicle. She winced all through counts eight, nine, and ten, then slowly opened her eyes. Alec's hazel eyes looked back at her in the mirror. "NO!" She tugged his T-shirt down at the neckline to see where she'd pinched herself, and an angry red welt was there. "No, no nonono!"

The sound of a phone ringing interrupted Max's mental breakdown. She let Alec's body go on auto pilot and quickly found his cell phone. A wave of nausea rushed over her as she looked at the caller ID. It told her that Max was calling.

Suddenly she was nervous. Her hands were shaking as she fumbled the phone open and pressed the answer button. "Hello?"

"You wanna tell me why I'm listed in your phone as 'Pain in my Ass'?"

"Excuse me?" Max gasped. It was her voice, she knew.

"Y'know, I have you in mine as just Max. Your name, that's it. For someone who's all big on names, you sure don't like using mine. I was looking through this thing thinking, 'Damn, does she not have my phone number?' I was trying to think if you'd ever called me on the phone while I scrolled through and checked the numbers of the names I didn't recognize. Then I come across this gem in your speed-dial section. While I'm touched that I'm number three on your speed-dial, the nickname is a little hurtful."

Max gaped at the phone. This was what she sounded like when she was on a tirade? Had Max just scolded herself?

"Max? You there?"

Max swallowed. Was she losing it?

"Look, it's Alec. Please tell me this is you, Max. Because if this isn't you I'm talking to right now, I don't know who else it could be. If some extra Freaky Friday special went down last night and somehow Logan ended up in my body, I think I'm going to go put my head in the oven. …Which I suppose would mean I'd be putting Max's head in the oven. Huh."

"Alec? That's you?"

"Yes. I don't know what the hell happened, but somehow I'm in Max's body. Now please for the love of god tell me this is Max I'm talking to in my body!"

Max shook her head to snap out of the surreal. "Yes, yes! It's Max."

"Are you sure? You don't sound too good."

How could he be so calm? Max felt like the ground was just pulled away from under her feet and she was freefalling! The situation and Alec's lack of panic contrasted with Max's feelings of nothing but were coming together to put Max in a temper. And how dare he go through her phone and yell at her for her contact list? It was her phone! She could call her contacts whatever she damn well pleased!

"Max?"

"No, I'm fan-freaking-tastic, Alec. I just woke up in a man's body. And guess what? I know the man! He's possibly one of the most annoying human beings I've ever encountered. And now, I'm stuck at his apartment, wearing his boxers, living out his stomach pains from eating expired pizza before going to Crash last night! I've got no clue how this happened or how to reverse it! I'm doing just awesome!" she ended with fake enthusiasm.

There was a moment of quiet while Alec processed this information, and then Max heard her voice say back to her, "How did you know I had pizza last night? You weren't with me before we went to Crash."

Max shrugged even though she knew Alec wouldn't see. "Dunno. Just do."

"Hey, wait a minute… Yeah, you were with OC. Here, at the apartment. …Good lord, how many times a week do you really need to shave your legs?"

Max flushed pink with embarrassment. "Shuttup! We need to figure this out!" A thought hit her. "Wait, where's Cindy? She was with us last night; maybe she knows what's up. She around?"

"No, she left for work already. Probably a good thing, considering…"

Max felt her stomach – or, well, Alec's - drop. "Oh shit… OH SHIT! Alec, what're we going to do about work?"

There was a small sigh. "I guess we'll have to skip 'til we figure this out."

"No, no, Alec, you cannot miss work while you're me, you hear me?"

Alec snorted rudely into the phone. "The hell not? You're late to Jam Pony every day. I think people would see it as a sign of the apocalypse if you showed up to work on time. Missing will not slow the place down."

Max forced down the acidic comments she wanted to throw at him for basically saying her work at Jam Pony was worthless and the place didn't need her at all. Instead she pressed the important issue. "Missing will get me fired. Normal spazzes whenever I miss. Last year after I broke out of Manticore, Normal pestered me for proof of my heart surgery until I had to lift my shirt to show him the scar." There was a long moment of silence. "You're picturing me lifting my shirt, aren't you?" she asked in a flat voice.

"No. Well, maybe…"

"Ugh. Anyways, missing work is not an option. Period!"

There was a pause. "Ohgod… please tell me you don't get those, like you have some kinda genetic component that makes it so you never… you know…"

Max frowned. "What?"

"… … …You're really gonna make me say it?"

"What the HELL are you talking about now? I was talking about work!"

There was another pause. "Maxie, am I gonna have to have a period as you?" Alec asked in the most uncomfortable, hoarse whisper Max had ever heard herself use.

Her eyes widened in horror. "I am not discussing this with you."

"Just give me some warning, okay? I'm not gonna be able to stop thinking about it until I know for sure I'm safe from it!"

Max clucked her tongue. "Ohmigod, you're an assassin! Grow up. It's just blood! You can handle it if it happens!"

She heard a moan come through the receiver. "Ohhhh no! So you do get them! …Do you get them more frequently than Ordinaries? Is that why you're always acting like a bitch to me?"

"ALEC! WORK! We need to figure out what we are going to do at work!" Max was sure that her entire face was red.

"Well, I'm sorry, Max. You're mad that you're a man now? Big friggin' deal! Being a man is awesome! I have to deal with being a woman now!"

Max's mouth fell open. "That is the most sexist thing I've ever heard you say, and I've heard you talk about some of the floozies you've slept with."

"…Who says 'floozy' anymore?"

Max groaned.

"No, my point was this. You now have to pee standing up. I now have to wipe you after you pee!"

Max gasped in horror. "You didn't!"

"Oh yes I did! I have to somehow get your hair up off your neck and pretend like I have this huge chip on my shoulder so that people will still think I'm you when I go to work today! I have to be the tough chick who my boss hates, while you get to be the Golden Boy. And now, I might end up spontaneously erupting blood through a part of the anatomy I never thought I'd have to deal with outside of one-night stands!"

Max's head was spinning. Alec was, of course, being overly dramatic about it. But it sounded like he'd come up with a crude plan for now to get them through the day. "Okay, calm down. I just had my period like a week and a half ago. It shouldn't be back for another couple weeks at least. I act like a bitch to you because you're a dumbass and you're usually doing something to deserve it. I don't have, like, Super Periods with revved-up mood swings."

They both took a moment to collect themselves. Max broke the silence after a short while. "So we agree to go into work today and pretend to be each other 'til we can escape and try to make some sense of this shit."

"Sounds like the only option for now. Since someone has attendance issues."

"Pfft. Whatever. You'd better not screw up today. If you do anything strange or twisted while you're me, I will introduce you to a whole new world of hurt like you never experienced at Manticore." There was a chuckle on the other line. Max grunted. "Something funny?"

"Nah, nah. It just sounds so ridiculous to hear your tough-girl words and inflections in my voice. You know?"

Max glared in response. "Just don't screw up. Remember, if you do anything stupid..."

"I know, I know. World of hurt."

"I was actually gonna say, it works both ways. I've got your body, too." With that, Max hung up the phone. She went to Alec's closet to figure out how to dress him for the day with a satisfied smirk on her borrowed face.

A/N2: That's all for now! Let me know what you think! I would love to hear feedback, whether it's an opinion or critique or even ideas for things you would like to see happen! More to follow soon. :)

Thanks,

Christique