Elle6778 - Dark Angel Fanfiction

REMEMBER - CHAPTER 3

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Chapter 1

COMPLETE

Him.

Max.

Sex.

He’s a dead man.

He was somewhat surprised that he was still standing there intact. Well, not really intact, he thought as his mind wandered to the scratches on his back.

She must have been in heat, Alec thought. Because there was no way in hell she would have let him touch her otherwise. As he thought about the empty room he had woken up to, Alec realized that Max must have gotten up and freaked out at what they did.

And what does Max normally do when she freaks?

She runs, what else!

He got back on his bike, thinking that he should find Max soon. They definitely needed to talk.

It was almost 5am when Max finally neared her apartment. She could not stop a grin from spreading across her face when she recalled the night she had. The red Ninja had provided all the spares she required for her baby and more. She had discarded the outer shell as it was too obvious and dismantled the bike, keeping some parts and reinstalling some parts on her own bike.

She sighed in satisfaction. Her baby was now as powerful as the latest model.

She had raced all the way back here, the power in her newly revamped bike rumbling beneath her as she twisted the throttle with glee.

Max killed the engine on her bike as she reached the front of the building which housed the apartment she and Original Cindy was sharing. She pushed her bike into the hoist and waited for it to rise to her floor. When the hoist stopped, she pushed her bike out into the hallway.

She wished she could share her night with Original Cindy. However, she did not know what Original Cindy’s take would be on the fact that her friend had brought back thousands of dollars of stolen bike parts. As good a friend as Original Cindy was to her, there were some things that Max did not feel comfortable sharing with her.

Stealing was one of those things.

She entered her dark apartment silently, hoping that she would not wake her friend up. Noiselessly, she placed her bike at its customary spot and moved towards the kitchenette.

A sudden sound made her eyes dart towards the couch, as she reflexively crouched in readiness for a fight.

“I see that some of the Manticore training still survived after so many years,” a voice drawled from the shadows, near the couch.

Alec.

Max sighed in relief. It had been a long night and she was not up for any heavy-duty fighting. Relaxing now that she knew it was only Alec, she asked as she gave him a curious look, “What are you doing lurking there? Where’s Original Cindy?”

Alec emerged out of the shadows, shrugging as he answered, “Don’t know. She wasn’t here when I got here.”

Only half listening to Alec, she looked at the parts and thought to herself, I need to stash these somewhere. Spotting the unused cupboard next to the window, she decided that it would do. “When did you get here?” Max asked distractedly as she focused her attention on the task of unloading the extra parts strapped to her bike

He shrugged, feigning nonchalance, and said, “About five hours ago. Where have you been?” He looked at the objects Max was busy unstrapping from her Ninja and wondered how she got all those stuff across the checkpoints.

Looking up from her task, Max frowned at his question. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I went to Sector 8 to get some stuff. No thanks to you! You haven’t told me yet. What are you doing here? What have you gotten yourself into this time?”

Into you; like that wasn’t obvious, he thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

Oblivious to his thoughts, she picked up the parts and brought them to a cupboard next to the window, stacking them carefully. Standing next to the window with her arms empty now, she turned her full attention back to Alec. She waited for his answer, tapping her foot. “So?” she prompted impatiently.

Now that she was asking, Alec felt a bit unsure of how exactly he was going to broach the subject. He had not thought this far when he decided to come see her.

“Yeah, about that. I just thought that we needed to talk. After…you know,” Alec finally said, rather lamely. He raised one of his hands to rub the back of his neck. A gesture which made him looks really unsure of himself.

“What? After what you made me do? Hell, Alec, for once I was trying to do the right thing, you know,” Max said irritably. If she had managed to catch the exhibition on time, she would have bought the part she required. Yes, bought. As in legal tender, with a receipt. She even had the cash with her. For once, she had wanted to buy something for herself, instead of stealing it. And look what Alec had gone and made her do? And why was he looking so sheepish anyway?

“It’s neither your fault nor mine. You can’t help yourself. I know that,” Alec said, feeling even more uncomfortable now. The way Max put it, it sounded as if he took advantage of her. Surely she knew that it took the two of them to do what they had just done.

Max gaped at him, “Not your fault? How can it be not your fault? If you had swapped with me, then I would have to steal!”

Alec was startled at her words. HUH? Steal? What has that got to do with anything? Out loud, he said cautiously, “Max, are we talking about the same thing here?”

After deliberating for a moment, replaying their conversation in her head, Max said, “I was taking about what happened today. What are you taking about?”

He raised both his hands and cupped her face gently, looking deep into her eyes to study her reaction. “I was talking about what happened today as well. When we were together,” Alec said carefully, his eyes searching hers. He wanted to know how she felt about the entire thing.

Confusion clouded her eyes. She jerked her head away from his hands and stared at him warily. “What? We were NOT together today. You went off on your own sweet way, remember?” Max said as she jabbed him in his arm with enough force to cause pain even to a transgenic. She was bewildered by his actions. What was he doing, touching my face like that?!

“Max, come on. I can tell you are scared by what happened. But denial is not the way to go,” Alec said to her, his tone uncharacteristically patient. He did not even appear to notice her finger stabbing his arm.

“Just what are you talking about? Alec, you are not making any sense,” Max frown deepened as her confusion increased. The expression on his face was unsettling her. He was looking at her in embarrassment and something else. She was beginning to feel slightly unnerved by the way he was studying her. Something had gotten to Alec and she did not like what it had done to him.

Alec said in exasperation, “As much as it may pain you to hear this, you must have wanted me at that time, otherwise nothing would have happened.”

As her eyes rounded in shock at his words, Max practically yelled, “What?! I wanted you? I wanted to kick your ass, you mean! Look, I don’t know what your dealio is, and whatever it is, I have a feeling that I don’t want to know,” she said warily.

Alec was behaving very strangely and she did not know what to expect. So Max did what she had been trained to do when faced with the unexpected. Hedge. Talk. Delay. Gather information. Unfortunately Alec was not being very forthcoming. He just kept coming up with these cryptic comments.

“Come on, Max. Sleeping with me can’t be that bad. I’ve never had any complaints,” Alec teased, trying to lighten the mood. Her reaction seemed over the top to him.

Max stared at him incredulously. She could not believe what she had just heard. “What’s the matter with you, Alec? What drugs are you on? Read my lips, pretty boy. I DID NOT SLEEP WITH YOU. Never have, and never will. Get it?” she snapped. Her confusion made her tone harsher than she intended.

Alec fought the stab of hurt he felt at her tone. He kept his face bland and his voice level to disguise his feelings. “Fine, be that way. I don’t care. I was just trying to help since, you know, we were in it together,” he said, running his hands through his hair in a show of discomfort.

Noting Alec’s exasperation, Max felt slightly ashamed of her outburst. They were friends after all, so maybe she should at least listen to what he wanted to tell her. Max let out a frustrated breath and said in a level tone, “’Kay, Alec. Let’s start again. What happened?”

“I thought you just said you did not want to know,” the now irritated Alec retorted, feeling slightly offended at her reluctance to admit what happened. If she wanted to pretend it didn’t happen, who am I to stop her. Max was the queen of denial. Just look at her and her not-like-that relationship with Logan, he thought.

“You are going to tell me or not?” Max asked again impatiently. She wanted to know why Alec had those thoughts in his mind, but she was not going to beg for it.

Feeling like a complete fool for approaching her now, Alec said dismissively, “Forget about it. Nothing important.”

Frowning at Alec’s uncharacteristic behaviour, Max turned away from him and said over her shoulders, “Whatever, Alec,” She headed towards the kitchen to grab herself a drink. Whatever it is, he’ll get over it, she thought.

A moment later, she heard the door to the apartment open and shut quietly. She slowly put down the glass of water she was holding, a crease marring her brows as she contemplated their conversation. He basically said I slept with him. Where did that come from?

Max wondered if she had done anything recently to give Alec that idea. A quick sweep of her memories told her nothing. She had not been in heat recently either. And that was the only time she would do something like that.

So what’s up with Alec?

A feeling of apprehension suddenly crept up Max’s spine as she thought back to the first day she met Alec

FLASHBACK

“ You look like someone I used to know,” Max said

Giving her a look, he said, “ Well, my designation's 494”

“His was 493. You must be twinned,” she realised.

494 nodded with a smirk, “ 493...Your fellow traitor. Went psycho.”

Frowning at the expression on 494’s face, she challenged, “What do you know about it?”

494 answered, “I know that because of him I had to spend six months in psy-ops. They wanted to make sure it wasn't genetic.”

END FLASHBACK

Max suddenly felt light-headed. Sherested her hands on the kitchen counter to keep herself steady.

It cannot be. This is a completely different case. Alec doesn’t have the same issues, she scolded herself sternly.

“Alec is stronger than that,” she said out-loud, trying to convince herself.

She forced herself to ignore the little seed of doubt in her mind.

The transgenics were standing by the window, seemingly deep in conversation. The figure squinted hard in an effort to make out their expression. Too bad it was too far to hear their conversation. It would be interesting to know what they were talking about.

The figure watched silently as the male transgenic lifted his hands to caress the female transgenic’s face. A burst of fury came forth. That should be me, the figure fumed, hands fisted. A jealous pair of eyes followed the transgenics and they moved away from the window.

They are not meant to be together. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

Enraged at the sight and the thought of what was going on beyond the window, the figure turned around and walked towards the almost-hidden vehicle in the alley. Not noticing that the male transgenic had silently exited the building.

Not noticing the look of recognition and suspicion on the transgenic’s face as he saw the vehicle pull away.

After the long day of deliveries, Alec felt that he definitely deserved a beer, or two…or more. It was not only the deliveries that got to him. It was Max too. She had been giving him furtive looks all day, thinking that he would not notice.

Still feeling self-conscious about the way things had turned out last night, Alec had stayed out of her path. He did not want to go over it again. If it was so bad that she had to pretend it never happened, then so be it. It was no skin off his back, he told himself. But deep down, he admitted that it hurt that she did not trust him enough to even talk about it.

It was bad enough that he could not remember anything of the actual event. And ever since the conversation last night, Alec was beginning to have doubts. Maybe he had been hallucinating. But then how about those scratches on his back? Those were real enough. But if it was not Max and it was someone else, then he really did made a fool out of himself.

He could hear the pre-pulse music pounding as he opened the door to his regular hang-out. Stepping into Crash, Alec’s eyes gave the place a quick scan. Spotting Sketchy and Original Cindy, he headed in their direction. They were sitting at a table, both facing the bar as they nursed a beer each.

His steps slowed as he saw Max headed towards them as well. Berating himself inwardly, he forced his legs to move forward. He could not possible avoid her forever. They were friends, for goodness’s sakes. Might as well pretend the whole thing was just a dream.

Alec and Max both reached the round wooden table at the same time. They exchanged an uncomfortable look.

“Alec, my man,” Sketchy greeted enthusiastically, slapping Alec on the back. Not surprisingly, Sketchy did not notice the tension between his two friends.

Alec winced in pain as Sketchy attacked his sore back. Glancing over at Max, he saw her frown at his reaction. She seemed surprised, Alec thought as his doubts returned.

“Hi, boo,” Original Cindy said over a glass of beer. She poured two glasses of beers from the pitcher and handed one each to Max and Alec. “Grab a seat,” she offered in an uncharacteristically quiet tone, suspecting that something was not quite right between the two transgenics.

Alec sat down next to Original Cindy. Max sat on the other side. Original Cindy’s suspicion grew but she clamped it down. Knowing that whatever the problem was, it normally sorted itself out in time.

“So, where were you last night, Boo,” Max asked. Her flickering eyes and the way she avoided looking at him were tell-tale signs which told Alec that she recalled their conversation last night.

Flicking her hair into place, Original Cindy answered, “I was out with a new honey. Went back to her crib. That girl, she was hot, I tell ya!” Original Cindy said dreamily. Then her eyes clouded over.

Noticing her friend’s look, Max asked curiously, “So? Why the look?”

“Turned out that she’s married and hubby was coming home tonight,” she said dejectedly. “All the good lickety-boos; all taken by dogs. What is this world coming to?”

Alec, Sketchy and Max laughed at the look of misery on Original Cindy’s face.

Max’s laugh died abruptly on her lips as a movement by the entrance caught her attention. The rest of them turned to look curiously in the same direction, wondering what was so interesting.

“Oh hell!” Alec cursed as his eyes took in the object of interest.

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