Let's see what kind of trouble we can get up to today, eh?

Chapter Eight

Max listened as the ER doctors tossed out orders right and left. Alec had stopped breathing in the car not far from the hospital, but Max knew one of them could go without oxygen for a lot longer than the average person. They'd been built that way, and then trained intensively to work while oxygen deprived. Even brain damage could be repaired given time, but only if his heart was still beating.

Max filtered out everything else, all the smells and sights and other noises, and focused on only the sounds from Alec's cubicle. She'd heard orders for a chest tube and blood and an OR to be prepped and a dozen other things. They hadn't gotten around to asking if the Sector Police had been informed, but once Alec's situation was less dire they would.

Dr. Shankar was on her way now. The ER people were ok for the moment, but Alec was going to need someone who knew about Transgenics to take care of him.

Max didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or sob when she heard the beep as Alec's heart caught the beat again and steadied. The internal bleeding had been putting stress on his heart as well as the lungs, and the chest tube had eased the pressure. Alec was breathing with assistance and his heart was beating. Everything else could be dealt with given time.

Mrs. Anderson was sitting beside her in the ER waiting room. They'd both had a chance to clean up a bit, but their clothing was still a mess. Neither of them could bear to leave though, and there was nothing to do but wait. Her companion appeared calm on the outside, but Max caught her occasionally brushing a tear away. She didn't know if it was because she'd just killed her own son, or if she was scared for Alec. Probably both.

Max didn't really understand why Alec had been so determined to rescue her, but he'd promised to protect her, and for Alec that might have been enough. Giving his word to someone was probably something completely new to him. He'd promised very, very few people anything in his life, let alone been allowed to follow through.

Max suspected there was more to it than that, though. Alec would have only known Mrs. Anderson for a few weeks, or maybe a bit longer, depending on how long he and Logan had been sneaking around without telling her. Alec had formed some sort of bond with Mrs. Anderson, something beyond just helping an old lady who needed it.

"He's told me all about you, you know."

"Yeah?" Max shrugged. "I bet he said I was always bossing him around."

Mrs. Anderson's lips quirked up in a tired smile. "He might have mentioned it." She patted Max's knee. "He also said he didn't know where he'd be if you hadn't been there to help him. I think that goes for me too, tonight."

Max only nodded. If not for her interference, Alec would probably be living the high life of the moral-free entrepreneur. People like that seemed to get pretty far in these everyone-for-themselves days. On the other hand, he might be rotting in jail for Ben's murders. It was hard to tell. The question was, where would she be? Would she still be running around free? Alec had made the difference between success and failure more often than she wanted to admit.

"He told me you had a gentleman friend." Her tone rose a bit as if it were a question.

"Used to," Max answered, growing more and more uncomfortable with the conversation. She didn't like that Alec had been spilling his guts to this lady.

"I see. And how do you feel about Alec?"

"He's… a friend. That's it." Max wanted to squirm in her seat, but she'd been trained for harsher interrogations than this, and did her best to look unbothered. It was definitely weird to think of Alec as a friend in the first place, let alone as anything else like Mrs. Anderson was implying.

"That's what Alec says, too, despite how much he likes to tell me about you and your exploits."

Max breathed out a sigh of relief at that. At least Alec hadn't gone completely mental and declared his undying love or something to some random old woman.

"He never actually said it, but... reading between the lines," Mrs. Anderson was watching her closely, "Alec told me it didn't matter anyway. He feels he isn't good enough for you."

"What?" Max frowned and turned toward Mrs. Anderson. "What does that even mean?"

"It means he thinks very highly of you," she answered kindly, "and he thinks he's done too much to be forgiven."

Max could still feel her shock and see the look on Alec's face when he'd shot the two guards. Thinking back, she couldn't tell if what he'd done had bothered him or if it was her seeing it that had bothered him.

She was still trying to right it with her conscience. The men had been killers, of that she had no doubt. They'd tortured Alec and they were going to take Mrs. Anderson, lock her up, and throw away the key. Max could have fought them, but she wasn't sure she could have fought Anderson and his two goons without one of them getting off a shot or two.

Alec's method of evening the odds had been practical, but the brutality of it rankled. She didn't like to think about what Manticore had taught them or made of them, but they were weapons, plain and simple. Alec even more so since he'd been there so much longer. Sometimes they just had to own what and who they were, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"Forgiven? I don't know what that has to do with me," Max replied, deliberately ignoring where this line of thinking was heading, "but Alec's done pretty well given where he started." He had come a long way. She could be fair, and admit that much.

"I know, honey. He's told me all about it."

Max froze, uncertain that she'd just heard what she thought she heard. "All about it?"

Mrs. Anderson nodded. "I know who you both are and where you were raised. He's also told me about a great many things that happened after you left. I would say you've both done well, given your beginnings."

"Why would he tell you all that?" Max asked, appalled. He'd flat out refused to talk about what happened except for a few vague things like, "You think life was rough when we were ten?" or "You did what you had to do, then you tried to forget."

"Because he needed to, honey. He needed someone to listen, I think." She shook her head. "Maybe I did too. My son kept me locked in that house for a long time. I always had everything I needed, but I was still a prisoner. Alec was easy to talk to."

Max frowned. "It's kind of hard to believe. I have trouble getting him to shut up, normally, but he never says anything important."

"Camouflage," Mrs. Anderson said. "I would have thought you of all people would recognize it when you saw it."

Max shrugged. "Maybe." She remembered what Joshua had said about Alec. Outside, lots of pretty colors, inside, darkness. That was true of pretty much all of them. Alec, though, he'd gone overtime to hide his troubled mind, not to mention the real disasters in his life. She knew all about that. She'd gone the standoffish-belligerent route to keep people at bay. Alec hid in plain sight as a charming rogue.

"How'd you guys even meet?" Max asked.

"Alec was snooping around through my son's papers and found the address for my house. It's gated and guarded, but he was determined to find what my son was hiding." She smiled. "He was very surprised to find it was an old lady like me."

"So you guys just started talking?"

"Actually, I offered him some cookies I'd just baked. The talking came later."

Max just shook her head in disbelief. Alec had been trying to take down a gangster and he'd found a grandma. Maybe that was part of why Alec had been so determined. He'd let his guard down around this woman. He'd told her who he really was and she still seemed to care for him. No wonder he'd been so ferociously protective.

"Maybe it's not my place, but…"

Max just raised her eyebrows and waited.

"Alec cares for you. I don't know if he even realizes it, or if he realizes what he was telling me when he talked about you. He… he has had a very… difficult life. From what I can tell, yours has been different, but just as hard. He barely understands friendship, let alone love."

"Whoa." Max held up her hands to stop the woman. "Alec doesn't love me. That's insane."

Mrs. Anderson shook her head. "As I said, he barely understands friendship. But with you… he's learning." She took Max's hand, and Max had to fight not to jerk it back. "Be patient. You're a good teacher. Don't give up on him."

"I… I won't," she promised, although she barely understood what she was promising.

A paunchy, balding man in his forties ran into the ER looking around frantically. His gaze finally landed on Mrs. Anderson and he changed direction.

"Mom!"

Mrs. Anderson jumped up and met the man halfway. He wrapped her frail form in a bear hug that Max was afraid would break her, but the old lady didn't seem to mind. When she pulled back. She looked up at the man, her hands on his cheeks, and laughed through her tears.

"I can't believe it. I've missed you so much." She pulled him down and kissed his face again and again. She laughed and cried and hugged him, completely oblivious to anyone watching them. "I'm so happy to see you."

"What happened?" the man finally asked. "How did you get away? Where's Michael?"

"He's gone," Mrs. Anderson answered and Max could hear the sadness and the relief in her voice, which was sad in and of itself. "A young man helped me get away, but your brother hurt him for it. That's why we're here."

"But you're not hurt?" He looked down at Minnie's bloodstained dress and blanched.

"No, honey. I'm fine. Just tired. The federal agent I tried to talk to before knows I'm here. He should be here soon and I'll tell him everything I know about the organization."

"Is that safe?"

"It has to be done. And they'll protect us, especially after what happened last time."

Max stopped listening. There had been a shift in the noise in Alec's room.

"Ok, let's get him to the OR," the doctor said.

Like a shot, the entire team working on Alec appeared from the room he was in and pushed his gurney loaded with equipment down the hall farther away from her.

"Max?"

She looked up to see Logan standing several feet away. As soon as they'd arrived at the hospital, Max had called him and asked him to find Dr. Shankar. She hadn't told him much, other than Alec was hurt, and they were about to be on the cops' radar. Mrs. Anderson had then called the feds and left a message for her old contact. Max didn't like being on the cops' radar, but she liked being on the feds' radar even less.

"Hey, Logan," Max said tiredly. She felt like she'd been running for days, and there didn't seem to be an end in sight.

"What happened?" Logan asked.

"They just took him to surgery," Max answered. She pursed her lips. She didn't trust herself to say more. They would fix him and then she would yell at him and then… She didn't know what she would do then, but she'd figure it out.

Logan sat down on the cushioned bench seat across from her and sighed. "You really do care about him, don't you?"

Max bristled. She hadn't forgotten about Logan keeping this little operation from her. Yes, he'd wanted to take down Anderson, but he could have asked someone from the S1W. Instead, he'd taken the opportunity to drive a wedge between her and Alec. He'd been trying to show her Alec's true colors.

"Why didn't you ask me to do it?" Max asked.

Logan sighed again. "Anderson never would have allowed a woman into the business. He's an old school chauvinist. Women to him are only wives or girlfriends or to be used. I needed someone who could get close and stay close."

"He got so close, he quit breathing on the way here."

Logan shook his head. "I never meant for it to go like this. We worked hard to keep it as safe as possible. We had our reasons, Max, but we didn't want you anywhere near Anderson or his people. And I just…" He looked at her, his eyes almost pleading. "I wanted you to tell me it wasn't real."

"It wasn't real," Max said, her voice flat. "We're not together. I made it all up."

"What?" Logan sat back in surprise.

"Alec wanted to tell you. But he didn't. For me. And now he's half-dead because I was too weak to tell the truth and stick to it."

"The truth?"

"As if you don't know?" she demanded, anger sneaking into her tone.

Logan's shoulders sagged. Oh, he knew all right. They couldn't be together. They shouldn't be together. What was the point in torturing themselves?

"Alec's hurt because we're idiots, and that's totally on me." She could feel tears starting to form, and ordered them away. They were useless and self-pitying, and right now she was just angry. She was angry at herself, and at Logan and Alec, and Anderson and his goons. She could also admit she was scared. She'd spent a lot of time in the past few weeks worrying about Alec and missing him, and if he was gone for good, she wasn't exactly sure how she would feel about that. Not to mention, Mrs. Anderson's little pep talk had made her all kinds of uncomfortable. She would need some time to think about it, but not while she was sitting in the ER waiting to know if Alec was going to live or die.

"Max, it doesn't have to be this way."

Max felt a sense of certainty settle over her. Her indecision and cowardice had led to this. She had indirectly hurt Alec. She wasn't going to be a coward anymore.

"Yes, it does. I'm sorry, but we're done. It's just not possible and I should have said it straight out."

"We'll find a cure," he tried.

"Maybe, maybe not. How many more people have to get hurt while we try?" She looked him straight in the eye. "Maybe I'll kill you in the meantime. Or maybe more people will get hurt while we try to find the cure. Or maybe we'll keep doing stupid crap like this while we don't talk about our actual issues."

"So that's it?" he asked.

Max shrugged. She just felt cold inside now, cold and tired, with a side order of guilt gnawing at her.

Logan nodded, although she doubted he was actually finished. It didn't matter. She was stubborn and she'd finally made up her mind, a few weeks too late unfortunately. He stood and walked across the ER waiting room to talk to Mrs. Anderson who was still talking to her son, although more quietly now.

Max turned away and ignored them. For a moment, she considered sneaking back to check on Alec, but knew it was useless. He was in the OR and she was going to have to trust them to do their jobs.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. She turned her head just in time to see someone walking down the hall where they'd taken Alec.

It took her a second, but she finally remembered where she'd seen him before. It was Sheffield, the man who'd driven the van from the bar, the man Alec had turned in to the police. He'd gotten out of jail somehow and he was headed down the hall toward Alec.

More soon…