A/N: Thank you to everyone who had read and reviewed the last couple of one-shots! This one ended up being a companion piece to "Alternate P is for Promise" from my last Alphabet series. You do not need to read that one to understand this one.

A couple people have asked me to turn my last prompt into a full fledged story. I'm so glad you guys enjoyed that one and I'm definitely considering fleshing it out!

C is for Cat

The clack of her heels echoed as she walked down the white marble floors of the grand church towards the large double doors that would lead her to the beginning of her new life. Her head was held high, her shoulders strong and sure. She was commanding. It was a lie.

She came to a pause outside the doors, her heart thumped rapidly within her chest and she was honestly surprised that no one seemed to hear it. Her long white gown swayed around her gold heels, just barely ghosting the floor. On the other side of the doors she could hear the music begin to swell. Her eyes fluttered to a close, eyelashes whispering against her cheeks and she took a deep, steadying breath.

The doors were loud as they slowly swung open and Max opened her eyes, conjuring a bright smile, as her face was revealed to all the guests (and reporters) anxiously awaiting her appearance. She kept her back straight, head up, as she slowly marched down the aisle. Kept a smile on her lips as she passed by the rows of their guests, as she passed by him. As she made it to the alter and stood tall across from her husband to be. She ignored the tears that burned at her eyes.

Sometimes she wonders how it was so possible for something that had once seemed so right to be so, incredibly, heartbreakingly wrong.

~DA~

The sand was warm between her toes as she laid on the perfect white honeymoon sands, mostly splayed out on the beach blanket her husband had bought for her. The crashing waves of the ocean just a few feet away from her were like a balm on her soul. There was nothing here that could truly make her feel better but the solitude in that moment eased some of her pain.

She'd once longed for the sensual dreams she'd once had of them to be made reality. Years ago. That time had long since passed. So naturally, once she had moved on, that was when fate pushed them together. Forced them, really. Guilt welled up within her because she knew that he was so happy. She ignored the lone tear that managed to leak its way outside of her closed eye.

~DA~

Shadows danced in the moonbeams that shown into their hotel suite and she watched them, making up stories for each one. They reminded her of Ben. Which in turn, of course, reminded her of him. She had her back to Logan, the satin sheets pulled up against her naked breasts. For the very first time in her life she found herself feeling like the traitor she'd been accused of being for so long. Cheater a little voice within her whispered waspishly.

She carefully suppressed her flinch when his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer into his body.

~DA~

Horns blared as drivers angrily wove their way down crowded streets. Same as usual. She sighed as she looked up at the building she lived in. That's what it was. It wasn't her home. It was just the place where she lived. She had just gotten back from a visit with Original Cindy. She got the feeling her friend had known something. Something that Max would have wanted to know but she was tight lipped.

Max knew it was about him.

She didn't want to go up to the top floor and walk though the door and pretend like her life was everything she wanted it to be. So she just stood out there. She startled when she felt something against her ankle and looked down to see an orange tabby cat weaving it's way around her feet in a figure eight. She smiled and crouched down to pet it. It was a friendly little thing. Attention seeking, it would annoy the hell out of Logan.

She was half tempted to bring it in to the place where she lived. Logan would never approve though. She was the only cat allowed to stay within the penthouse. "Sorry little guy," she murmured awhile later before she finally forced herself to straighten up and walk inside the building.

~DA~

She knew that he knew. Not all of it, there's no way he could. He knew enough, though, to know that she wasn't happy.

"Tell me you didn't just marry me for your people, Max," he begged her. Her eyes closed as she leaned her head against the back of the couch. She thought of that last heartbreaking sunrise that she'd spent with him. The night that he'd told her a story. Their story. The night before her wedding.

"Does it matter?" she asked blandly.

"Of course it matters!" he shouted, hurt and anger drenching his words.

"You didn't seem to think so when you begged me to say yes," she muttered.

If she had been watching him she'd have seen his head reel back, shocked at her cool tone. She didn't though because she was still watching that sunrise behind her closed lids.

"We had been waiting for this...for the cure, for the chance to finally be together for years, Max! That it helped facilitate freedom for the rest of the transgenics was supposed to just be a bonus!" he was losing it. All the tattered edges were fraying as he came to the realization that the future he'd envisioned for so long was unraveling.

Max sighed. "We hadn't even been together for years Logan. I had moved on."

"With who? Him?" he bit out scathingly. His ire only rose when she refused to answer him. "What have these last two years been then Max? Just play house?" he demanded. "God, why can't you just try?"

Every muscle in her body tensed then and she finally opened her eyes, wrenching the (slightly) happier version of her younger self away from that last solemn night with him. She stood up, bringing herself up to her full height as she faced her husband. "Don't you dare play the victim here, Logan. You knew. You knew that marrying you wasn't something I wanted. Not then, not anymore. I told you that it if I agreed it would only be because it would be in the best interest of my people and you still got down on one knee and begged me!"

"Because I thought you'd love me again!" he burst out, throwing his arms around wildly in his desperation.

Max's eyes softened with pity as she shook her head sadly. "I never promised that, Logan."

His jaw slammed shut and he looked at her in utter betrayal before turning on a heel and storming out of the house. The slam of the door echoed behind him. Max wished that she'd cared.

~DA~

"Transgenics have been accepted into the world, the transhumans have started integrating within the general population...marriages aren't required to facilitate basic human rights anymore. We could quietly get a divorce," Logan said softly into his glass of wine.

Max's hand stilled as she brought the fork up to her mouth and for the first time in so very long she felt something that felt strangely like hope swell within her. She nodded gently. "Okay," she agreed. She pretended not to notice the heartbreak on his face as it fell with her quick agreement.

~DA~

Their divorce had been finalized a month ago but she'd been searching for him since the day after they'd agreed to get one. It had been over two years since last she'd seen him. Her wedding day. She didn't know anything about his life anymore. She had never wanted to lose contact but she'd understood. She'd chosen to go through with her wedding to Logan and he'd chosen to leave immediately after the wedding, forcing himself to attend solely for appearances sake. That's all any of this had been for. Appearances.

He could have moved on to someone else for all she knew.

~DA~

She was wringing her hands nervously as she waited for someone to answer the door. She was just about to give up for the day and try again tomorrow when it suddenly swung open. Max's heart stuttered in her chest when a pretty young blonde was waiting on the other side. "Can I help you?" she asked sweetly and Max was pretty sure she saw a flash of recognition in her eyes.

"Um…" Did she really come all this way to turn back without even talking to him? "Is Alec here?" she finally managed to get out.

The blonde's smile widened. "Yeah! He's in his office. Come on in," she said cheerfully. Max stepped in and saw a young kid, probably around five, playing with a toy airplane. Another kid, this one a little older, ran by yelling something about a skateboard.

The blonde knocked on a closed door and Max's heart started hammering when she heard his voice call out for them to come in. God she'd missed his voice.

Her host swung the door open and popped her head in. "Got a visitor, Alec!" she said cheerfully and Max stepped into the room, unable to wait any longer. Alec's green-gold eyes widened as they drank her in, she knew she was doing the same thing. He stood up from behind his desk.

"Thank you Clara," he said, his voice a deep rumble as he dismissed the blonde who giggled as she shut the door.

"She seems nice," Max said, trying for indifferent but from Alec's smirk she knew he wasn't fooled.

"She's seventeen," he told her amusedly.

"There were some other kids too…"

Alec nodded. "This kind of turned into a transgenic orphanage," he said with a shrug. "Gem runs it but I help keep it going so I keep an office here for when I'm in town."

"I had no idea," she said sadly. Guilt welling up at how far away from her own people she'd become over the last couple years.

"It isn't something we advertise. Not everyone has adjusted to us yet." He stepped cautiously around his desk. "What brings you here, Max?"

"You," she said bluntly, her stomach fluttering when he tilted his head in that way of his.

"Logan?" he asked with a raised brow.

"Divorced," she answered with a shrug. "He couldn't stand that I didn't love him."

"It's a hard pill for a guy to swallow," Alec said knowingly.

"I always loved you," she denied.

He smiled, somewhat sad, somewhat bitter. Completely beautiful. "Not enough," he murmured.

"Alec…"

"No, I'm sorry Max," he sighed. "I know that you made the best choice for everybody."

"Just not for us," she acknowledged.

"Maybe not but you were right. If you hadn't married him and unified us with them then we might still be trapped in that cage. Or a different one. Or dead. Trust me, I've been over it again and again in my head," he told her understandingly.

She shifted uncomfortably. "What about you? Are you...with anyone?" she forced out.

He smiled warmly down at her. "No. Why, Maxie? You interested?" he asked teasingly, eyes sparkling. God she'd missed his eyes. She couldn't take it anymore.

The dam between them broke as she rushed towards him. He swooped her up in his arms as her lips crashed against hers.

Max had been stagnant for years and she could feel, as he poured it into his kiss, that Alec had been too. Just existing but not really living. As they came together in a frenzy, feelings long since (unwillingly) pushed away, the gray seemed to melt away again and color flowed back into their lives, warming them up.

~DA~

"I wouldn't go in there," Clara warned as she stood outside Alec's office nuzzling the orange tabby cat that Alec had brought back for her from a trip a few months ago. He had told her it was just as sickeningly sweet and annoying as she was so they should get along great.

Gem frowned and looked at Alec's office door. "Why not? He in a mood?" she asked.

Clara smiled widely. "Don't think we'll have to worry about his moods for awhile. Max just showed up."

Gem's smile stretched somehow even more widely than Clara's. "Well it's about damn time," she breathed out happily as she put an arm around the younger girl and led her away from the very occupied office.