Week of the Cat: Thursday, Part One

[seamagik]

Thursday

It was the second time in a week she woke up to warmth. Her bedroom had a bit of a draft; one she didn’t bother tracking down and sealing up because she hardly slept and so didn’t spend enough time in here for it to bother her. She usually woke up to cold sheets, rolled out of bed, and moved on. So waking up curled around a human furnace came as a little bit of a shock.

Once again, Alec had managed to flop to his back, directly to the center of the bed like the true space hog he was, and Max had somehow managed to completely roll in her sleep and wrap around him. She was tucked under his arm, her face pressed into his shoulder, and his arm was wrapped around her. His other hand was resting lightly on her knee, which was drawn up over him. Her nose wasn’t buried in her mark, seeing as how she was on the wrong side for that, so that was a good thing, but her fingers were resting lightly against it… which was... well, not so good. She pulled her hand away, let it just rest there at the hollow of his throat instead, not willing to give up on illusion for now. The illusion that she wasn’t alone, that there was someone in her life that she could just hold on to.

How pathetic.

Max did try and pull away then, tried to turn in the darkness to take a look at her clock… but as she stirred, his arm tightened around her, his hand hooked under her knee, drawing her more surely against him, and she glanced up in surprise to find hazel eyes watching her in the soft darkness.

Max wondered if he was even really awake.

“Alec?” She asked softly, relaxing into his side once more.

His head fell back into the pillows, and he murmured something, his grip on her loosening. Guess his cat wasn’t keen on her trying to leave.

“Idiot,” She muttered, relaxing.

“Bitch,” His voice was sleepy but amused.

She started in surprise, and his hand tightened under her knee once more. Like he was keeping her or something.

“I thought you were asleep,” She hissed into the darkness.

“I always knew you talked bad about me when you thought I wasn’t listening,” He murmured back. She bit the inside of her cheek as his hand slid up the underside of her thigh, across her ass, around to her hip. His head turned so he could look at her once more, and he blinked sleepy eyes. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know, if you’d let go of me-“

But his bleary gaze had focused over the top of her head, going to the light of her alarm clock’s bright face. “It’s only five in the morning, Max,” He sighed, resting back into her pillows, eyes closing once more. “Go back to sleep.”

Yeah right, she had shark DNA, she grumped to herself as his hand splayed on her back, how the hell was she going to-

Max grumbled in annoyance as the first rays of sunshine glanced across her face, her eyes tightening. She fought wakefulness just for a moment before she gave in with an unhappy sigh. She stretched slowly, her arm sliding against the cool material of the…

empty…

sheets…?

What the hell? Max's eyes popped open and her head lifted away from the pillow as she looked at the empty spot next to her. Alec was nowhere to be seen. Nor were his boots, she realized as she sat up in annoyance, the sheets pooling in her lap.

That jerk! Who was he to snuggle half the night then just up and disappear before she could?

“You left me,” She said it almost accusingly, and she wondered why.

“I made you breakfast,” He shrugged. Yeah right, as if boiling an egg, burning some coffee, and buttering some toast could count as a true culinary effort… Even if this was Alec they were talkin' about.

“You think you can spend half the night in my bed and just up and disappear whenever you feel like it?” She demanded.

Nearby, someone started choking on coffee. The two transgenics whirled, scowled at Carter, still hacking up liquid, and decided to take their conversation somewhere a little more private.

“I don’t really see what the problem is,” He followed her into her office.

“We really need to talk about this,” She frowned, but not in the normal, bitchy, you-are-too-annoying-to-live way that he was usually accustomed to.

“And that didn’t answer my question at all…”

“You running away at zero-dark-thirty is not conducive to us talking,” She explained, peevishly.

Wait, is that why she was annoyed? “I did not run away,” He frowned.

She turned on him with a scowl. Didn’t run away? Ha! He’d even had time to go home, shower, again, and change, and that was on top of the amount of time he would have had to have to stumble his way through making her breakfast! Which means he had to have left as soon as she’d fallen back asleep. The idea, frankly, made her outraged. “Crept away, slunk away, apply whatever verb you feel fits best, but any way you slice it, I woke up and your cowardly butt was gone.”

Her annoyance made him annoyed. His annoyance made him want to annoy her more. Theirs was an odd, cyclic sort of relationship. “Max, if you want to sleep with me, all you have to do is ask.”

It’s not even funny how honest that ended up sounding.

Alec didn’t have time to dwell on it, because Max was going red-faced, making little choked, stuttering sounds that meant she was going to resort to throwing things soon. Which meant that it was time for him to saunter out, whistling, because if there was anything Max hated more than dirty innuendos she had no response for, it was whistling. She was so enraged, the stapler never even had a prayer of hitting him.

But, oh crap, he had forgotten-

“What time is this thing we’re doing for Logan?” He probably shouldn’t have stuck his head back in the door. The pen that hit him in it was more aerodynamic and better aimed.

“What’s wrong with your face?”

“Huh? Oh, Max threw a pen at me.” Alec rubbed at the mark on his forehead a little absentmindedly, but hardly paused. He was intent on the far corner of Command.

“You two are so weird.” Mole shook his head and followed, falling in step next to him. “Wish you would just get it over with already.”

“I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but there’s no ‘it’ to get over with.” Alec grumped.

“I’m sorry, did you say something?” His friend replied blandly back. “I couldn’t hear you over the sound of the big fucking bite mark on your neck.”

Alec eyed Mole out of the corner of his eye and adjusted his high collar in annoyance. Like Mole could even see the thing when he had this sweater on... “I hate you.”

“I bet you say that to all the girls.” When Alec just rolled his eyes, Mole continued. “So, what time is this great Eyes Only gig going down? You need some back-up?”

“What time does anything ever go down?” Alec continued in the same grumpy vein. “Right when I’d rather be doing something else after a long day at work.”

“So around 8, then?”

“Yeah,” Alec frowned. “I’m beginning to think Logan just has his watch set on a timer and doesn’t want to change it.”

“Would explain why everything always happens at 8.” Mole nodded in agreement. He paused for a long moment, before he couldn’t contain it any longer. “Okay, so what happened?”

Alec blinked in confusion, and finally fell still. “I’m sorry?”

“Last night,” Mole frowned, also stopping, turning to face the shorter man. “After all the drinking. I don’t remember much except you said you had something to take care of and then you just kind of rambled off. Well... make that weaved off.”

Alec’s face colored beneath freckles. Why had Mole even let him leave the apartment in that kind of condition? Probably because everyone had been fairly sure that transgenics couldn't get drunk. Well, guess even their metabolism had a critical threshhold, a point at which it could simply not keep up with Mole's surely-nearly-toxic moonshine. “Nothing happened,” He muttered, turning on his heel and making his way again towards the very near, sooo close, grey couches and the much needed coffee.

He shouldn’t have gotten out of bed so early… who cares if, by staying, he would have had to deal with Max’s warmth, Max’s smell, Max’s body, pressed so closely against his-

Actually, it was probably a good thing he had left so early.

Caffeine had been put on earth for his consumption anyway.

Mole followed like the persistent bastard that he was, oblivious to Alec’s rapid descent into grumpiness. “You went to see Max, didn’t you? That’s what you usually do on Wednesday nights.”

“Not every Wednesday,” Alec protested. But he was still refusing to look at Mole, focused entirely on the Styrofoam cup he’d pulled from the stack next to the coffee machine. Which to Mole, made it a dead giveaway. Alec didn’t notice Mole’s eyes narrowing, though. He poured the coffee, every rod and cone within his own eyes trained upon the liquid he was pouring into the cup… As if by doing so, by ignoring the tall lizard man, it would make him magically disappear or something.

“No, not every Wednesday,” Mole agreed, eyes still narrowed, and by his continued existence proved Alec’s disappearing theory wrong. “Only on the Wednesdays that you two take out your sexual frustration by shouting at each other until you’re red-faced.”

Alec slammed the pot back into its cradle and turned to look at him in annoyance.

“Sorry, did I say ‘sexual frustration’ again?” Mole pursed his lips in pretend thought. “It’s weird how I keep getting that mixed up with ‘aggression’.”

Alec sighed and let it go. Mole’s blunt, give-a-shit attitude, as annoying as it could be, was also one of the reasons why Alec counted him as one of his better, and more amusing, friends; couldn’t very well go expecting the transhuman to change now… He changed the subject instead. “Speaking of aggression, what time is it? The night crew is coming in early for drills, which means I had to put the X-6’s training on the schedule for eight.” Alec took a warming sip from his cup.

“Uhhh, about that.”

Alec turned to look at Carter over his cup, his mouth still fused to the rim.

“Max gave your training lessons to Brock.”

Alec sprayed coffee all over the coffee table. If it hadn’t been so gross, it might have been a little ironic.

The door slammed open. Max glanced up. Alec was livid.

“I could kill you.”

Max blinked in confusion. “Wha- Relax, Alec, it was just a pen. The mark on your forehead isn’t even really that noticeable-“

It derailed him, just for a moment. “Wai- wha?” His hand come up to rub at his forehead. Before he remembered why he was there, his hand dropped back to his side, and he glared at her with all he was worth.

She frowned in question. “Something the matt-“

“Brock?” Alec interrupted her, angrily. And then again, in higher, even angrier tones. “I mean, Brock?!”

Max continued to stare at him blankly from her spot behind the desk. “Brock…” She prompted, as if trying to lead him into a legitimate sentence. When he just continued to stare at her like she was the anti-Christ, Max sighed in frustration. “Kinda need you to work with me here, Alec. Brock, what?”

Suddenly the livid, borderline petulant, Alec was gone, and he drew himself up to full height. His voice was hard. “You gave my X-6’s to that blonde little weasel?”

“Blonde little-“ Max started in confusion, before she caught up quickly to the situation. Crap. She had forgotten to tell him about that last night, seeing as how she’d been so… distracted. Still, like a true commander, she immediately attempted to justify herself. “Hey, waitaminute! You’re the one that was sticking up for him, saying he needed more to do around here!”

Now his voice was cold. What the hell was his problem? “When I said give him something to do, I didn’t mean give him something of mine to do.”

Max pushed herself away from the desk, growing more confused with each passing moment. Alec was usually all about trying to worm his way out of responsibilities… Actually, to be completely honest, Alec was more all about trying to worm his way out of Eyes’ Only missions… He was slightly more dependable where it came to TC and to the X-6’s…

He did kind of have a soft spot for the 6’s…

But that wasn’t the point. The point was that Alec’s sudden rage was very, very unlike him.

She stood slowly, and said as gently as possible. “Alec, is this you talking, or is this the claim talking?”

Alec’s eyes narrowed. “I told you he had a thing for you, why would you give him an opening like that?”

Guess that answers that question.

“An opening?” Max asked, confused. She crossed around the desk. “Alec, you weren’t around! I had to get someone to work with the 6’s. What was I supposed to do? Cancel it? Those little troublemakers barely have enough to do as it is.” Her voice remained level and she was making her way slowly towards him. Something in her told her that if she could just touch him, everything would be okay. She just needed to-

Alec craned his neck to look at the clock above her doorway. The second hand was rapidly approaching the 12. The kids were probably already in there, starting their warm-ups. Before Max could reach him, Alec had spun and stalked out of her office without another word, leaving her there, gaping like an idiot, hand still partially outstretched.

Her mouth snapped shut. Her hand fell back to her side.

“Well... crap.”

She only let herself wallow in self-pity, aware of the very public events that were bound to be happening, in oh, thirty seconds, before she booked it out the door, hot on Alec’s heels.

“Alec, this is a bad idea.” She trotted to keep up, her voice beginning to strain with annoyance. “Let me talk to him, let him know that I’ll find something else for him to do.”

“And since when,” Alec kept walking, and his voice was even harder, if that was possible. “have you two been on speaking terms?”

“Last night,” she said it before she really thought it through. “He stopped by the office and we bullshitted about bikes for… a… while?” She trailed off, slowing to a stop behind Alec’s immobile form. He glared at her balefully over his shoulder, like that had only made it worse, before pushing through the heavy swinging doors that led into the training room. Max sagged for a moment... And popped back up, pretending at strength, when a familiar voice swept down the hallway.

“Hey, Maxie!” Peta waved from down the hall. Her thick hair was up in a high ponytail, and she was sporting some dark capris and a matching sports bra. Her ultra-white tennis shoes seemed glaringly out of place; the fashion mistake of the century, not that Peta gave a crap. She jogged over to her commander, smiling. “Figured I’d help my favorite Second in Command with the 6’s today. It'll warm me up for later...” She glanced over Max’s morose face, and her own cheery smile fell. “Why the long face?” She glanced at the doors to her left, the doors Max was currently staring a hole through, took a quick step, pushed a door open and glanced inside. It only took one quick look for her to pull back out immediately and turn wide eyes on Max. “You did tell Brock he was only workin’ with the X-6’s for one day, right?”

“I told him all week.” Max replied morosely.

“Well... crap.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Stay out here,” Peta frowned, facing the door, squaring her tan shoulders, and steeling herself. “I’ll take care of this.” When Max started to protest, Peta just glanced at her over one shoulder. “Trust me, Max. If you’re in there, you’ll only make it worse for Brock.”

“Peta,” Max called, just as the other woman was about to push into the training room. Peta paused. “Don’t… don’t let him hurt Brock too badly.”

Peta glanced at her, again, over her shoulder, and in her olive green eyes, for a moment, Max thought she saw something. Something a whole lot like, you brought this on yourself. The Grecian looking girl seriously considered Max’s words for a long moment. And then shrugged. “No promises.”

“Peta!”

But the woman was gone, having already pushed through the doorway. Sometimes, Max forgot that Peta operated on a whole different playing field then she did; most transgenics struggled through their weird animal instincts while still attempting to operate under human guidelines. Not Peta; she seemed to instinctually understand the deepest workings of transgenic nature. Not only that, but she accepted it as well (which, unfortunately for her, more often than not got her in trouble with the transgenics who weren't so accepting of the weird jungle cats that sometimes shared their head space). Peta probably thought a little rough handling was needed to set Brock down a few pegs…

And, even worse, at the end of the day, as annoying as it was to admit, Peta would always be more Alec’s friend than she was Max’s. Undoubtedly, she would be siding heavily with Alec on this one. And, even best of all, to top it all off, she had never liked blonde Brock to begin with.

…but surely she wouldn’t stoop so low as to let Alec wipe the mat with the smaller man… Max shook her head. Of course not. Probably, not.

Well, maybe.

Max let herself pace once past the door. And then again, in the other direction. And then she couldn't take it anymore; the energy was simply overwhelming.

Adrenaline was crackling through her body and Max’s hands were clenched nervously. She abruptly fell still, mid pace, planted herself in front of the doors and stared hard at them, almost like she was trying to stare through them. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say she was resisting the urge to twitch. It was almost like the feeling she got when Alec walked into a room, only this time, it was stronger… not nearly as pleasant… and oddly enough, she wasn't entirely sure these feelings were hers. All of her anxiety seemed to be originating from behind the heavy doors in front of her. Or at least that's what she tried to convince herself. This sort of apprehension couldn't possibly be her own, could it? Max chewed her lip for one long moment, one short eternity… And as odd as it was, a thought suddenly offered itself up to her...

…What if, as unlikely as it would be, Brock actually fought back…

What if he touched what was hers?

Max pushed through the doors before she even had a chance to reconsider Peta’s warning.

The adrenaline spike she'd been cruising on had obviously been unnecessary. In fact, there was hardly anything to worry about; there wasn’t an aggressive death match going on at all. There was, however, a marked air of waiting, a current of electricity that was coursing through the room. A few people were still sparring or warming up, but most were watching the silent drama that was unfolding in the center of the mats. Most of the onlookers weren’t over 16, though, and the vast majority of them were really only pushing 14, thank goodness, so maybe news of Alec’s manly posturing wouldn’t spread too far...

Still, whatever it was Max had walked in on, maybe it wasn’t fighting, but it wasn’t exactly all hugs and puppies, either. Alec was glowering down at Brock. Brock was glowering up at Alec. And Peta was standing next to them, facing the door, glowering at anything that moved.

Not as silent as Max had first thought, she realized as she approached; Peta was using words to go along with that ‘Don’t Fuck With Me’ stare. “See, it was all just a simple misunderstanding, right?” She paused, and when neither man had said anything, she stressed it again, “Right?”

Brock was the first to look down. “Yeah, sure.”

Peta turned to look at Alec, and had to work hard to control the quirking smile when he didn’t look away from Brock, just folded his arms across his chest and said in a hard voice, “I’m sure it’s nothing that will be happening again.”

Max’s face twisted in confusion. What was that about? Had Brock talked back to Alec when he’d first walked in?

Well, duh, when didn’t Brock talk back to Alec, or to anyone with any remote amount of influence. Guy had some serious authority issues. Still, everyone was unbloodied and in one piece. Guess she hadn’t really had anything to worry about after all…

“Everything okay?” She smiled entreatingly at the small group.

Alec froze. Peta tensed. Brock turned to look at Max, his head cocking slightly. He started to open his mouth-

“What the hell are you looking at?”

Peta winced. Oh, that really, really didn’t sound like Alec. That sounded like a cat, operating Alec’s mouth. She snuck a peak; Alec’s eyes were still trained on Brock, but his arms had dropped back to his sides, and he didn’t seem to like where Brock was looking; that is, directly at Max.

But Brock was abrasive and foolhardy on a good day. On a bad day, he was reckless and kind of a jackass. Figures it would be kind of a bad day.

“Is there a rule somewhere that lets you dictate what I look at, as well?” Brock popped off, his gaze swinging back to Alec. Alec’s eyes narrowed. Brock’s eyes darted again towards Max. “Actually, you know, now that Max is here, maybe she can settle this.” Ah crap, Peta thought to herself, here it comes.

Brock turned towards Max and her deer-in-the-headlight expression. “Max, did you, or did you not, tell me to take the X-6’s for the rest of the week?”

Peta turned wide eyes on Max, her lips pressing together, and shook her head slightly; a warning for her commander to be very careful where she stepped. Alec didn’t look away from Brock. Max fidgeted. “Well, I did, but-“

Peta sighed in exasperation.

“Well, there you go.” Brock shrugged, turning back to Alec. “From the horse’s mouth; I got the X-6’s for the rest of the week. I don’t really see what the big deal is, anyway. Think of it as a mini-vacation.”

The big deal, Peta scowled, is that both she and Alec had told him in no uncertain terms to step off, and Brock had tried to play the odds, play the power game, instead of doing what he'd been told. You know, she got it, the kid was bored, he needed somethin’ to do… but at this point, he was just being an ass. Peta’s eyes darted again towards Max. And she was pretty sure she knew why… Pup had eyes for the Queen Bee, and couldn’t understand that he could never be what she needed.

But the problem now, was, that everyone was kind of painted in to a corner. Alec had told Brock to step off. He hadn’t, which was a direct challenge to him, as the more Alpha of the two and Second-in Command to boot. But Brock had de sotto gotten Max’s back up. So now Alec couldn’t shake Brock by the back of the neck without making it look like he was challenging Max’s authority. Peta wanted to go bludgeon her head against one of those crates. Sometimes being transgenic sucked. Maybe some of the humans wouldn’t consciously process all of that crap, but every single cat in the room was tensed and wary, waiting to see what would happen, with or without their human counterparts' knowing.

Alec didn’t look down or anything… his gaze just seemed to slide from Brock to Max without giving up an ounce of authority. He stepped off, undoubtedly to pull Max aside and speak to her for a moment-

Peta fought so, so hard to control the smile when Brock solved everyone’s problem by interpreting Alec’s movement as giving up.

“I guess you were telling the truth,” Brock smiled slowly. “You two aren’t mated.” Alec froze. Oh, if Brock was going where Peta thought he was going, today might be a very, very good day. “Just one-sided, then? Whose choice was that, yours or-“

Brock didn’t get a chance to finish, because Alec hauled roughly around and socked Brock in the jaw, sending him to the mat. Max gasped and took a step forward, but Alec didn’t immediately descend on the blonde, nor did Brock immediately spring up and try to tackle Alec. Peta took a small step back, her smile falling back into grim stone, realizing that it might look slightly maniacal if she continued to grin while she was standing over Brock’s fallen form.

Alec came down to a crouch and his voice was harder than Max had ever heard it. “Let’s get one thing straight.” Brock glared up at him balefully, rubbing at his jaw. Alec was hardly affected. “I am one of very, very few friends that you have. You really don’t want to continue down this path.”

He leaned further in, his eyes narrowed, his voice descended to tones meant only for their ears. Max, too far away, couldn't decipher the low murmur, but Peta listened with narrow eyes and a small smirk. “And even if it is one-sided… what makes you think she would break it? That’s not the way it works. Transgenics don’t break claims to take a step down.” Alec straightened, frowning, and that could have been it…

But Brock sat up slowly. “And what makes you think it’ll ever be anything other than one-sided? She has Logan, remember? I’m not the only one deluding myself... friend. At the end of the day, am I really the one you should feel threatened by?” His eyes flicked to Max, still standing, frozen, a few feet away, and Alec’s eyes followed.

Peta blanched. Fuck. She’d forgotten how smart Brock was. How devious. She saw the wheels starting to turn in Alec’s head as he gazed at Max; she saw the uncertainty. But he controlled it when he looked back at Brock…

And then the weird bastard smiled. “Good talk,” Alec patted Brock on the shoulder. “You think you can handle the X-6’s today? I need to talk to Max for a while.”

What the hell? Max and Peta had never been more sure that they didn’t understand men. Especially when Brock just shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.” He worked his jaw for a moment, and then he sighed, his hand dropping to the grey mat. “I don’t actually like this job, you know… You think you could try and talk her into setting me up in a mechanic shop or something?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Alec stood fluidly, offering Brock a hand. Brock eyed it for a moment, and then grasped the other man’s forearm, allowing the larger transgenic to pull him to his feet.

“What the hell was that?” Max demanded, when Alec walked towards her, snagging her elbow and pulling her backwards through the training area.

“We share a common interest. And a common dislike.” Alec shrugged. “We bonded.”

“But, but-“

“But, what?” He paused once he’d pulled her out the wide, swinging doors. Max wrenched her elbow away from him, glaring balefully. She wanted to say, but that’s not at all what she’d been expecting to happen… She thought for sure he’d go crazy jealous and try to pound on Brock.

“What?” He repeated. Then sighed when she still refused to answer. “Alright, I get it. The weird…” He scanned the hallway for listeners, but it was empty, so he continued, “…situation, made me a little wound up. But really, Brock is no threat to me.” Alec shrugged again, like it was no big deal. “Besides, I might be a little more aggressive than normal, but I’m not the one that staked a claim. The only that has to deal with the crazy jealousy right now is you.” He pointed out. She stared at him in surprise for a second. Did he really expect her to buy that?

“No crazy jealousy, huh?” She finally lifted one eyebrow. “You wanna explain to me why you punched Brock in the face, then?”

Alec shifted from one foot to the other, before saying grudgingly, “He had it coming. Besides,” he added petulantly. “I didn’t hit him nearly as hard as I coulda.”

Uh-huh. “So, what, it was a warning shot?”

“Maybe,” Alec hedged.

“And the reason you called Logan a, quote-unquote, ‘stupid Ordinary’ was…” She prompted.

“Ah, c’mon, Max. Who doesn’t call Logan that?”

Max gaped for a moment. Alec grinned wanly. “Joking, Max. Just joking.”

Max huffed, god, he and Peta really were alike, before she turned on her heel and made her way back to her office. Her body was still buzzing with adrenaline from the near-fight, her hands were still antsy. She tried to shake it away, hard to do when Alec was hot on her tail. It’d lessened slightly when Alec had laid Brock out on the mat, but it had all come roaring back when he’d grabbed her elbow as he was making his way out of the training room… And as Alec followed Max through the door of her office, it suddenly occurred to her that all this built up energy, it wasn’t actually hers… it was his.

The door clicked shut behind him. The air in the room gained about a thousand pounds. The buzzing in her hands started crawling up her arms.

Oh, Christ. He wasn’t nearly as normal, as collected, as he’d been letting on. She turned slowly, almost dreading what she’d see. “…Alec?”

His head was cocked, and he was looking at her. His eyes were dark, and his mouth was twisted in thought. He almost looked... he looked like he wanted to devour her. And even worse, God, when he looked like that... he looked delicious.

Max swallowed. Alec took a small, sauntering step forward. Max took a hesitant step back.

“Max.” He got around to replying to her query.

“…Everything… okay?” Another small step. First from her, and then from him. Her breath seemed to be coming a little bit faster. The wariness was gone from her gaze; maybe it had never been there to begin with.

“Fine." He shrugged slowly, continuing his sauntering steps. "Just thought maybe we could use my suddenly freed up morning to… talk.” His eyes dipped down, his gaze slid across her lips. It was almost like a strange, slow kind of chase. “You know… about everything… Or maybe about tonight.”

Her pupils expanded rapidly and it never occurred to her very slowly functioning brain that he was talking about the Eyes Only mission that she had been guilted… erm… that she had volunteered for. Like he could sense the derailment of her thoughts, the breath-stopping images, he smiled crookedly, wolfishly.

Guess she had been kind of hogging the animalistic spot-light for a while; guess it was Alec’s turn again. Guess this is the part (she bit her lip when his hand came up and slid over her shoulder) where she (she was still walking backwards, and he was still following, but it was no longer so much a chase as it was an inevitability) should start running (her eyes fell shut, her head fell backwards just in time for the back of her thighs to meet the edge of the desk).

“Bad idea?” She breathed, but kept the skin of her neck open for him.

“No idea what you’re talking about-“ Alec smiled slowly and started to lean in, his lips descending to her throat.

“Hey Max!” The door slammed open and Jeri came through. The two transgenics by the desk sprung apart quickly, and guiltily, but not so fast, and not so innocent, that Jeri didn’t fall still and glance between the two of them in suspicion. “Am I… interrupting something?” Funny how she could make such a simple word like ‘something’ sound so kinky and suggestive.

“Of course not,” Max said surely, refusing to even glance at Alec who seemed busy flipping through some papers that had been on Max’s desk only moments ago. In fact, Alec was so busy with the papers, and Max had spoken so surely, that Jericho became even more suspicious, her eyes narrowing.

“Riiiiight.”

“You need something, Jeri?” Max asked, controlling the exasparation.

Jeri promptly forgot the guilty looks that had been on Lord Vader and Young Skywalker’s face… well, not completely… Given the weirdness that she had just walked in on, she really needed to come up with new nicknames for Fearless Leader and Trusty Second. But renaming Max and Alec would simply have to wait; this was definitely more important. So long as she got them renamed before the next Command meeting, that is (nothing quite like throwing out a new annoying nickname to distract Max from that pesky Heat suppressant situation).

“Yeah. I need you to come with me, Max.”

Max frowned at Jeri's solemn tone, and shared a glance with Alec. Jeri, too, glanced at Alec. And frowned.

"Hey, did you know there's pen on your forehead?"

Onward to part two