Last chapter, Alec was in terrible shape but he was determined to save Anderson's mother for some reason. On we go!

Chapter Seven

Max moved as quickly as she dared. By the time they'd made it up and out to her bike, Alec's lips were blue. He wasn't breathing deeply to avoid the pain, but she was also sure he had a collapsed lung. She'd taken a quick listen to his chest and there was a definite difference from side to side.

Alec hadn't said a word when she'd had to help him on her bike. Now, he was pressed to her with his arms around her and he hadn't made a single lewd remark. He was shaking and leaning heavily against her, holding on by sheer determination alone. As she turned a corner, she took it easier than she normally would for fear he would fall.

"We're almost there," she said over her shoulder.

"Just go," he wheezed. They got plenty of odd looks when they passed through checkpoints, but Max did a lot of yelling that she had to get him to a hospital and they let her through.

Finally, they reached the address he'd given her. It was a typical, rundown, two-story building that had been turned into apartments. A car that was much too expensive for the neighborhood was parked out front. It told her Anderson had beaten them there, but at least he hadn't left with his mother yet.

"Alec, stay here. I can handle this."

Alec didn't have the energy to argue. He simply struggled his way off the bike, pulled his gun from his waistband and let it hang loose at his side.

Max rolled her eyes. "Fine. Give me the layout," she ordered.

"Steep staircase up to the… second floor apartment, bedroom to the left… on entry. Stairs are noisy, but… the bedroom has a fire escape."

"And this lady?"

"Frail," he said. "Can't hurry… or fight or…" He shook his head. "She can't hustle… down the stairs."

"Will he kill her?"

"Dunno. She tried to go… to the cops once… and he's kept her… locked away ever since. Never sees her."

Alec turned and headed around the corner of the building. She followed and turned the corner in time to see Alec reach for the fire escape ladder and promptly crumple against the wall and wrap his arms around his chest. He stayed upright, but it was close.

"Idiot."

"I think we've… established… that," he gasped out.

Max pulled down the metal ladder. It was well oiled and nearly silent. Alec had made sure the stairs were noisy so he could hear people coming, but his exit would be silent.

"Alec, stay here. I can…"

She trailed off when he pushed away from the wall. "No."

They didn't have time to argue, so Max simply turned and began scaling the ladder. Max climbed to the window and waited while Alec struggled his way up to the second floor. It was a good thing they were up against normal humans. Alec's breathing was loud enough to wake the dead, his wheezing almost a whistle it was so bad. Max stretched out and pulled him up as soon as she could reach him. Alec leaned against the building for support. His lips were blue again and his complexion had gone gray beneath the blood and grime.

"Alec, this is stupid," she hissed. "You can't breathe."

"Window," he shot back. "Hurry."

Max shook her head, but turned to the window. It, too, slid open soundlessly like the fire escape ladder.

The bedroom was empty, with no more than a mattress on the floor and a blanket folded at the foot. She had no doubt he had a collection of supplies hidden in the safe house, but they wouldn't be in plain sight. The bedroom door was closed, so Max climbed inside without any fear of alerting Anderson or his men. She then leaned back out and helped Alec through the window. He nodded his thanks and staggered to the closed bedroom door. Max joined him and they both held their breath to listen.

"You bring your thugs here?" she heard a frail voice say. "You need them to deal with your own mother?"

"You made it necessary." Max recognized Anderson's voice, devoid of any feeling as usual.

"No, you did," she said sadly, "when you became this… gangster, and expected me to tolerate such behavior. Your father would be so ashamed."

"I'm ashamed of the state he left us in when he died, so we're even."

"Your father was a good man," she said, clearly incensed on behalf of her dead spouse. "He worked hard and he kept you fed."

"He was weak. He worked for pennies and then he died."

"He loved you," Mrs. Anderson said, and Max could tell she had started to cry.

"Love doesn't feed a family, especially when the breadwinner's dead."

"Oh, honey," she said apparently at a loss for words, and Max knew their time was up.

"Stand up, Mother. We will take you back to your house."

"You mean my prison?"

"You are well taken care of," he countered. "And there's no use to fight this. Your new protector is already dead."

"What?" She sounded horrified. "You killed Alec?"

"I will kill anyone who threatens my organization," he answered and the warning was clear. His mother was on thin ice.

"That's our cue," Alec said.

Max cracked open the door on silent hinges and she wondered when Alec had had the time to work on his safe house.

Mrs. Anderson was sitting on a chair at a battered old kitchen table. She was tiny and thin as a rail, with short, steel gray hair in a typical old lady curl. Her flowered dress was mostly covered by a heavy cardigan that she had pulled tight around her.

Anderson was standing with his back to them, a guard on either side of him. Max pointed to the right to say she would take that guard.

Alec just looked at her and shook his head, his expression sad. He raised his gun and a second later both guards were down.

Anderson spun around, but he wasn't armed and he stopped at the sight of Alec holding the gun.

"Alec!" Mrs. Anderson shouted, then she brought a hand to her mouth in shock as she got a good look at him.

"Are you ok, Minnie?"

"I'm fine," she answered shakily. "But you… Alec, you need to get to a hospital."

"I know," he said through a bloody smile. "Your son's… hospitality is… lousy."

"I'm well aware."

"Just what do you think is going to happen here?" Anderson snapped. "I have an entire network of people. They will hunt you down for this."

"How… about this?" Alec gasped out, and Max was afraid he was going to keel over at any moment. "Minnie leaves… with me… and we… forget… this ever happened."

"Alec, stop talking," Max snapped, and wonder of wonders, he did. She looked at Anderson. "We're leaving, and your mom's coming with us."

"You just murdered two men. You think you can walk away?"

Max shook her head. Shocked as she might be about Alec's choices, she wasn't the one who was barely standing after being tortured for hours by these bastards. "You try to turn us in, I tell a different story and suddenly we're the people who saved poor Minnie from these two kidnappers. We'll be heroes," she bluffed.

Anderson obviously wasn't impressed. Max saw him tense his muscles only seconds before he rushed Alec who was in such bad shape, he didn't react in time. Anderson snapped the gun out of Alec's hand, then turned it and aimed it at Alec, who'd fallen to the floor. He was on his side, loose-limbed, and Max doubted he was conscious.

"Don't move or he's dead," Anderson warned, as if Max didn't have the idea already.

Max held up her hands. She could blur and take the gun away, but he might get a shot off, or involuntarily squeeze the trigger when she hit him. She didn't know if Alec could survive another injury. She didn't know if he could survive at all.

"Not moving," she said. "Like I said before… I don't care about you or your organization. I just want Alec."

Anderson narrowed his eyes. "If that were true, you wouldn't be here."

"I can't help it that Alec's a moron. I tried to get him to go to the hospital, but somehow being tortured kind of ticked him off."

What Anderson didn't see was his mother as she bent down and took a gun from one of the dead guards. She straightened and aimed the gun at her son with shaking hands.

"You think this is a negotiation?" Anderson said. "I'll kill you, I'll kill him, and then I'm leaving with my mother. You'll just be another pair of dead street rats."

"Honey, I can't let you do that."

Anderson turned only slightly and his eyes widened at the sight of his mother pointing the gun at him. "What are you doing?"

"I can't let you hurt anyone else. I couldn't do anything before, but I can now." Her face was a mask of sorrow, but her voice was steady.

"This isn't funny. Put the gun down." He turned around and aimed the gun at Alec, ready to put him down like a dog. "I'll take care of this and we'll-"

The gunshot was deafening in the enclosed room.

The shot turned Anderson from the force. With a gasp of fury, he aimed toward his mother. Max kicked the gun from his hand and it clattered away as Anderson crumpled to the floor and didn't move again.

The room was silent for several seconds with the exception of Alec's ragged breathing. Neither Max nor Mrs. Anderson moved, both frozen in place while Anderson took one last breath, and then fell completely still.

Mrs. Anderson walked to him, looking down at her dead son, fat tears falling down her cheeks. Her mouth was tightly closed, and she was shaking like a leaf. She leaned down and placed the gun she'd used to kill him on his chest. "I'm so sorry, honey," she whispered. "I love you."

Mrs. Anderson straightened and walked around her son. She knelt next to Alec and gently brushed his hair back from his swollen, bruised face.

"Crazy boy. I tried to warn you not to help me."

"He doesn't listen very well," Max offered. "But he's hard to kill, thankfully."

"Do you have a phone?" Mrs. Anderson asked. "He needs an ambulance."

Alec let out a pained sound. "Max?" It was drawn out, more of a groan than an actual word.

"Alec?" Max dropped to her knees at his side across from Mrs. Anderson. "Hey. You awake?"

He blinked open his eyes, although she could tell he was dazed. "You know…" He licked his lips. "When I said… I needed to use… my skills…"

"You get that stupid idea out of your system?"

"Just… shoot me… next time… save me… the effort."

He was struggling for air. His lips were blue, as were his fingers now, and that was on top of his other injuries. Max thought furiously. She tried to calculate how long it would take an ambulance to get there against the time it would take to get him to Anderson's car and drive him herself, although that would jar him badly to move him down the stairs.

"There's no time," she said. "We have to take him ourselves."

Mrs. Anderson looked horrified, but nodded. "Very well."

"Alec, we have to move you."

"I's… afraid… of that," he wheezed.

"You ready?" she asked. This was going to hurt him badly, if he stayed conscious.

"No," Alec answered, then, "Do it."

Max didn't wait. She grabbed him under his arms and hauled him up. Alec cried out, but he stayed standing through sheer stubbornness. He held onto her and his head landed on her shoulder, his panting breath loud in her ear.

"We need to move," she warned. She felt him nod, and knew he was beyond speaking. Max turned slightly to throw his arm over her shoulder, but the movement was too much and Alec slumped against her.

It was a mercy, and Max took full advantage. She shouldered him in a fireman's carry. "Door," she barked.

Mrs. Anderson was staring at her like she was an alien, but she hurried to open the door. Max carried Alec down the stairs. There was a guard waiting with the car.

"Who are you?"

"Open the door," she snapped. "Anderson wants us out of here now."

The guard looked at her oddly, as if he knew something was up, but opened the rear door of the car out of sheer habit of responding to orders.

Max gently set Alec down in the back seat. She was covered in blood from carrying him, and she knew he was still bleeding from the stab wound. His body hadn't been able to plug the holes yet, especially not with how hard he was pushing himself.

Max stood back up from the car and faced the guard, who was looking toward the door to the apartment building.

"Where's the boss? I thought I heard-"

Max clocked him. She caught him before he fell and dragged him around the corner of the building out of sight. She dug in his pocket for the car key, ran back and asked Mrs. Anderson, "Can you drive?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"Ok, you're in the back. Try to keep some pressure on the stab wound." She placed a hand on her own belly to show her where the wound was.

Mrs. Anderson, fragile as she looked, nodded in determination. She pulled off her cardigan and hurried into the back seat, lifting Alec's head and shoulders so they were in her lap. She immediately saw where the blood was coming from and pressed her cardigan to the wound.

Satisfied that Alec was being cared for, Max got into the driver's seat and tore away from the curb, headed toward the hospital.

Max glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that Mrs. Anderson was once again crying.

"Honey, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

"No," Alec rasped, surprising Max that he was conscious again. He really was amazingly stubborn.

"My… fault… got caught… stupid."

"Oh, honey, just rest. We're almost there. You rest."

"Not… your… fault…," he said with more strength, and Max could feel that he genuinely cared for the old lady, which surprised her as much as anything else. She just didn't think of Alec caring about anyone but himself. Yet, he'd allowed himself to be tortured to protect this woman. He was hurting himself now to keep her from blaming herself.

It was like a light dawning. She started to think back on other times when he'd helped, not only her, but Joshua, and got nothing in return. He'd helped her clone, even Logan, and others, maybe all the way back to when he'd found the x-series trapped in a fish tank.

She really should have known there was more to it when he started acting weird. She should have known he was up to something. Her prejudice had kept her from paying better attention, and now Alec was barely alive in the back seat.

"You have to stay awake, honey," she urged. "You have to stay with me."

Alec didn't answer and Max gripped the wheel more tightly as she slid around a corner.

"Alec, stay awake," Minnie ordered in a voice Renfro would have admired. "You have to tell me more about that girl of yours."

Max heard a gurgling sort of wheeze from the back seat.

"You told me how beautiful she is and how smart she is and how brave. I want to know more. You promised to introduce us."

There was no response this time, nothing.

"Alec?" Her voice was getting louder and more strident. "Alec?"

"What's happening?" Max demanded.

"He's not breathing." Mrs. Anderson looked up and her eyes met Max's in the rearview mirror. "I think he's gone."

More soon…