A/N: This is a really short chapter because it is just a section of the story that needs to be out of the way in order to move on to the next part. which by the way i hope to have up soon since my writers block seems to have gone bye bye! Yay!

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me okay, happy now!?

CHAPTER 6

After ensuring that Max had fallen asleep Alec rubbed his eyes with clenched hands and stood, feeling just how tired he himself was. As he turned to leave the room he was startled to see Cindy stood in the doorway with a bemused expression on her face.

"Holy crap!" He said just a little too loud, after hearing Max stir but not wake he lowered his voice and asked her " How long have you been stood there?" He was amazed that she had managed to sneak up on him like that and realised that the situation with Max had thrown him more than he thought. Bad soldier.

"Since my boo threw herself at you and you surprised the hell outta me by being a gentleman" She said with a massive smirk adorning her features. At first Alec smiled at what his tired mind had taken as a compliment but as he had more time to process what she had said he realised that it had been anything but. "Hey what do you mean I surprised you, I'm a gentleman" he stated the towering embodiment of indignation.

Cindy's smirk simply grew as she replied "Whatever" But Alec didn't have the will to argue so he grudgingly let it go.

" Well anyway I'm gonna head home, when she wakes up she is gonna feel like crap so just make sure she takes the Asprin but she needs a lot more that it says on the bottle okay?"

" And just where are you planning on going at this hour in the pouring rain? Didn't you leave your bike at Crash?" Cindy said with a raised eyebrow. Looking out the window he noticed that it had started raining during the time he had been in the apartment and he had indeed left his bike at the bar. Scratching the back of his head he mumbled a "Yeah" as he contemplated how unpleasant it would be to walk the 3 sectors back to his apartment when Cindy said "Why don't you sleep on the couch?"

"You sure" He asked thinking that Max probably wouldn't be too happy about that

"It's the least I can do after you took care of my girl like that" she said smiling a small, warm smile at him. With a deep breath he agreed, walked over to the couch and plopped down with an exaggerated grunt before kicking off his shoes.

"Well OC is going to bed, night boo." and with that she walked into her section of the apartment and closed the big curtain partitioning off the area.

Laying down on the tattered couch and covering himself with a blanket he thought about tonight and Max but mostly about the promise he had made. Any other time, any other promise and any other person and he would have just dismissed it a drunken memory to be forgotten but when she asked him to help her, he knew that it was Max asking, it was her who truly wanted to move on and in her drunken state had actually been smart enough to ask for help, his help. He also knew that she needed to move on because her relationship with Logan was unhealthy, for her as much as him.

So he would help, he would dedicate himself for however long it took. He made it his mission, and if there was one thing that even leaving Manticore couldn't change it was that 494 always gave his all on missions.

He fell asleep that night with a smile on his face as he planned for tomorrow.

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