AN: Flashback’s are represented in
italics
Part 2: Memory Games
He lay there for a moment in shock.
Max’s scream still ringing in his ears. He could feel his blood seeping through
his shirt. Rolling over on to his chest, he groaned in agony as the sudden
movement alerted him to the bullet that was lodged in his thigh. Pushing the
pain to back of his mind, he braced his hands against the floor and pushed
himself unsteadily to his feet. And for the first time his conscious mind took
in the wreckage around him.
Bullets riddled the walls, the floor,
everything.
And where there were bullets, there
was blood. It was everywhere.
There was a pool of blood slowly
seeping from behind
Or at least he would have if the
bullet that had killed him hadn’t blown away his left eye as it made its way
towards the man’s brain, taking pieces of broken lens along with it.
A sudden bout of nauseousness
overtook him, and Alec doubled over and vomited beside the desk; accidentally
knocking the vid-link to the floor as he did so. Before passing out, as his
mind shut down.
The next thing he knew, he was
surrounded by a group of frantic Terminal medics.
“C’mon, where’s that damn clamp?”
“I’m going to have to dig that bullet out of his thigh.”
“Damn it! It’s in too deep.”
Blearily he blinked his eyes, and
gazed down the length of his battered and bloodied body. Watching as his body
pumped blood out of his body like a fountain.
Movement to his right caught his eye.
As an iridescent figure moved closer. Slipping in between the frantically
working medic’s like water. None of them giving any indication that she was
there. Long dark hair fell about her shoulders in waves, as she brushed cool
finger tips against his fevered brow.
“Rachel?” he choked as blood bubbled
from his mouth.
“Sh. Simon.”
His head began to pound, and he was
beginning to find it difficult to hear the activity around him. He felt numb.
“Rachel?” he asked again. Confused.
“Sh. It’s okay, 494”.
“Damn it! He’s going into shock.”
“Get the crash cart ready.”
A part of him knew she was just a hallucination,
but he didn’t care. He wanted to hold her in his arms again. Breathe in her
sweet honeysuckle scent.
“Not yet.” She smiled, as she leant
down and pressed her soft lips to his brow. “Not yet, pretty boy” her voice
changed suddenly, “You need to come find me, so I can kick your ass.”
“Max?”
“Alec. You can’t die yet, you idiot.”
“Max!?”
Smiling down at him, her chocolate
eyes filled with mirth. “C’mon, you ass.” She said stepping away from him. Her
image beginning to dissipate. “Come find me”.
“Max”, he called after her.
“Shit he’s seizing”.
“Hold him down. C’mon. C’mon. Hurry.
“Maaxxx”, Alec screamed as he began
to drown in his own blood.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
He jerked bolt up right in bed. The sweat soaked sheets
bunched around his waist. For a moment, he was confused as to where he was. But
the confusion only lasted for an instant.
Swinging his legs out of bed, he silently moved around the
darkened room, picking up his clothes from where they’d been carelessly tossed
earlier that evening. A soft sigh came from the sleeping blonde in the bed. For
a moment Alec froze, as he waited for her to settle down.
Twenty minutes later he was standing beneath the scalding
spray of his own motels shower. Leaning his forehead against the cool tile, he
finally began to calm down, as his heart rate began to ease.
The ringing of his cell-phone reached his ears, just as
switched off the shower. Stepping out of the cubicle, he snagged a towel off
the rail and wrapped it around his waist, as he padded his way into the
bedroom.
Picking his jacket up from off the bed, he pulled the still
ringing cell from its pocket.
“Yeah” he mumbled into the receiver.
“Alec. Alec come home now.” The agitated voice of Joshua
rushed.
“Whoa, slow down buddy.”
“No, no, no middle fella’ has to come home now”, that caught
Alec’s attention. Joshua hadn’t called him middle fella’ since he’d woken up in
TC’s infirmary two weeks after Max’s abduction.
“What’s up Josh. What’s happened?”
“Max. Max back-”, the phone slipped from between shaking
fingers and bounced softly on the carpet “-little fella’s come home”, the tinny
voice of Joshua said.
____________________________________________________________________________________
She fought like a wild cat. A woman possessed. As bodies flew
across the room, scattering trays of medical equipment across the floor.
“For God sake, grab her arms and strap her down!”
“Strap the fucking bitch down.”
“We’re trying.”
“Tie her goddamn feet.”
“Get ready to administer the sedative.”
“Get the sedative ready.”
Panic and fear had flooded her system the second she smelt
the stringent scent of antiseptic. With panic clouding her mind, and adrenaline
surging through her body, she was unable to distinguish between what was real,
and what was memory.
Pulling her wrist free of its leather restraint, Max put
everything she had into her fist, as she punched the advancing medic in the
face; sending him sprawling to the floor. Kicking out at another, she jumped
from the hospital bed, grabbed up the fallen syringe and slammed it into the
neck of the female medic.
A pair of large hands wrapped around her chest from behind.
She felt a sharp pinch to the side of her neck. As she heard herself yelp in
surprise, a familiar sounding voice said, “Sorry lil’ fella”, and then she was
falling, tumbling end over end into the swirling horizon, as strong arms held
her close.
___________________________________________________________________________________
At the