Z is for Zoo, 2B
All the baseball bats are belong to me.
Probably just because I don't want you to beat me with them. Part 3 is brewing.
Alec didn't always appreciate Mole's wry sense of humor. Especially when he came home, after another extremely satisfying, extremely confusing, weekend, and found Casey leaning against the wall next to the door, just on the inside of his office. Casey was his friend, he'd been looking out for her since they were kids, but he didn't particularly want to share the details of his private life with her, especially when it came to Max. Max had always been a strange, nebulous kind of entity, floating in and out of his reality, and parts of him wanted to keep her all to himself. Plus, he was a little worn out, and he didn't really feel like dealing with this right now. He glanced at Casey out of the corner of his eyes, but it didn’t slow his walk towards his desk. Not even when he reached the thing, and Casey’s bland voice reached his ears.
“I know you’re sleeping with her.”
Alec paused, just for a moment, before shrugging out of his jacket and tossing it across the desk. He turned to her, leaning against the desk’s hard edge, his arms folding across his chest as he waited for her to continue.
“You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you’ve had pressing business in Seattle every other weekend for the past six months,” She finished blandly.
Alec just continued to stare at her, but his stare, the stare of a soldier, she'd been around it for years and it hardly unnerved her, not the same way that it unnerved Max. She wouldn't back down, so finally he just shrugged. “And? So what if I am? There some rule somewhere that says I can’t have a lady friend?”
“Max is no lady,” Casey threw back, “and she sure as hell isn’t your friend,”
This is why he hadn't wanted to deal with this. Sometimes Casey acted as if she was the only woman, really, the only person, that he was allowed to associate with for any long period of time. Sure, she was okay with any number of Alec's casual flings, but start throwing the 'friend' word around and she got wound tighter than a republican at a Green Peace meeting. “You don’t even know her,” Alec frowned in response.
“Do you?” Casey challenged. “This time last year, didn’t she want to knife you in the face?”
This time last year, he’d pressed a kiss against her lips on the top of the Space Needle and she’d answered his consuming, ravaging desire with her own... at least until she’d come back to herself and remembered what they were supposed to feel and opened a door into his forehead.
“Look,” He sighed, turning back to his desk. “I get that our relationship is a little unconventional-“
“Unconventional?!” Casey exploded, pushing away from the wall, her golden eyes flashing. “She hates your guts! And last time I checked, you hated hers right back!”
Alec just stared at his desk. Maybe that had been true at one point… Actually, that last part had probably never been true. Angry, maybe, but Alec had never really had it in him to hate Max back… But lately, where Max was concerned… Sometime, somewhere, somehow… it’d all started changing.
He was waiting for her when she got in. She looked at him in curiosity, her head cocking to the side, taking in his small smirk and and his hazel, hungry eyes. Before she could say anything, he lunged forward, swept her up, carried her into the bedroom, and tossed her on the bed.
And she couldn’t help the small laugh that bubbled out. Her eyes widened, she pressed her lips together, looked away, and promptly tried to pretend it hadn’t happened.
Alec had paused, still hovering over her, his hand outstretched, halfway to her jeans.
“Did you… Did you just laugh at me?”
“No,” She lied, and tried to make her eyes annoyed. She failed. The corner of her mouth quirked and she forced it back into something more neutral and less telling.
“You are laughing at me!” He straightened, glaring down at her.
“What?” She sat up, shrugging, twisting long hair over her shoulder. “It’s not my fault your caveman theatrics amused me.”
His eyes narrowed, his lips twisted. “Caveman, huh?”
She shrugged again.
His smirk was wicked. “Oh, you are so paying for that.”
She shrieked as he pounced.
And afterwards, she'd looked at him a little strangely, her head pillowed on top of his arm. He couldn't place the expression; it was one he'd never seen before.
"What?"
But whatever it was, it passed, her face went cloudy and she looked away. "It's nothing."
Sometimes it was still angry. Occasionally it was amusing. Usually it was nothing short of amazing. He told himself it was always just sex, so what did it matter if it never was tender? And he tried to pretend that he didn’t know that one wrong misstep and it’d all come tumbling down once more. He always had to be careful what he said, careful what he brought up; really he tried to keep talking to a minimum to avoid the possibility of her remembering that she was supposed to despise him. He didn’t want it to go back to the way it was before, he liked that she looked at him with more than loathing. He liked when her breath came faster, and her eyes went hooded, when she arched upwards, stopped avoiding his kiss, and just gave all of herself over to him… and only to him. More than anything else, sometimes Alec loved that he didn't have to share her with Logan.
But it all had to tumble sometime. And for Max, it came sooner than for Alec.
She was ravenous, but food held no interest for her; not when she was puking it up after every meal and the acid reflux was like fire. She was moody and tired and Gem was looking at her with sympathetic eyes and Joshua’s nose kept twitching, like he knew too. The only one that pretended obliviousness was Logan. And only because he was on a mission.
“They’ve been hiding under our noses all this time.” Logan was frowning down at her as she went through the folder with cold, clammy hands and a heart that was freezing. His eyes narrowed. “I take it that Alec never mentioned that detail to you.”
“How…” She wanted to ask, how did you know that sometimes I come home and Alec is waiting? What did it matter though, because somehow, someway, everyone seemed to know. Instead she shook her head and dropped the folder back to the table. “How did you even find them?”
“Someone was bound to notice the activity eventually. I mean, the place was supposed to have been burned out. Really, he’s just lucky that the Familiars never thought to come snooping around.” He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, tried to ignore the way her brow furrowed and her hand glanced across her flat stomach.
Max stared blankly past him. He willed her to look at him; to remember that Alec was the one that had taken leadership from her, that had carted over half of the transgenics back into the Wyoming wilderness. That Alec was the one that was attempting to rebuild Manticore.
Max didn't look at him, but that didn't mean that she wasn't very rightfully angry. She hadn't busted everyone out of Manticore just so they could choose to go back! And given her anger, and she finally knew where to find him, how could she possibly wait another two weeks until he came to see her again? She needed answers now. And by God, she was going to get them.
She parked her recognizable bike far back in the treeline and walked the rest of the way to the gate; she didn’t recognize the guard. The guard recognized her, or at least her face, because he started in wariness, and his M-16 lifted just a hair. It was almost like the old days.
A VA hospital, my ass. What kind of hospital needed armed guards?
“Designation?”
She didn’t even slow down. “453.”
The X-4 just frowned. “Let’s see a barcode, honey.”
She abruptly spun, lifting her hair, showing the expanse of clear skin at the nape of her neck. She turned again, smiling sweetly, sarcastically. “I’ve got a husband, a kid, and a house in Canada. I don’t exactly walk around with lines on the back of my neck.”
It was a conundrum; she could see the thought processes rolling across the guard’s face. Somehow she doubted that this was a scenario he had been prepped for.
“Look,” she sighed. “I’m just here to see 494. We met once, in Seattle, a few years ago, and I need his help with something.”
“With what?” The guard asked in suspicion.
“That’s for him to know, not you,” Max replied in boredom. He continued to eye her for a few moments before stepping into a small building near the gate, undoubtedly to call her in on the radio. He came back after only a few minutes to unlock the gate and gesture her in with the muzzle of his semi-automatic.
She wasn’t even a few more steps inside when a X-6 materialized by her side.
“Max?”
His unblinking eyes, and his well-kept clothing, his groomed hair, and the way he couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice. Dalton; she barely recognized him, she’d never seen him so put together before. Still, she stared blankly, uncomprehending, and after a moment he shook it away, and straightened. He almost looked… disappointed. Had he missed her? Or had he wanted news on Gem and on Eve? Didn’t matter, because he nodded at her.
“453? Alec's in a meeting. I was told to show you to a briefing room while you wait.”
Well, that was fast. He spun and started trotting quickly across the training yard. Max followed at a leisurely pace, doing her best not to keep her eyes focused on the back of his head instead of gawking at her surroundings. The place looked remarkably unchanged; there were transgenics sparring and working out together, groups scattered all across the yard. It seemed strange with none of the trainers’ voices in the background, raised in anger. Some of the buildings still had smoke stains, and not all of the windows that had been blown out had been replaced, but overall, it seemed like many of the effects of the fire had already been dealt with.
Dalton was waiting impatiently for her by a door and he just rolled his eyes when she didn’t pick up the pace. Good to know he hadn’t changed too much.
He led her down a long hallway, to another door, and then down a flight of stairs, into the cooler underground. Max was surprised, thinking that by ‘briefing room,’ he’d meant one of the old second story class rooms. Guess not. Manticore leadership had been awfully fond of the basement for some reason; not the side with PsyOps and the transhumans, naturally. They had their own little underground enclave, complete with large, bunker-like offices and briefing rooms; Max only knew because she’d been marched through it on her way to Renfro’s little slice of hell many a time. She doubted that most of the other transgenics had even known this area'd existed until they’d returned with Alec.
Dalton went down a long corridor and glanced at her before pushing open a door. He paused, looking into the room, and the person already waiting in one chair. After a moment, he just nodded at Casey and gestured Max in, closing the door behind her.
They were alone.
“453?”
Max kept her face impassive.
Casey just rolled her eyes, lifting her feet onto the oblong briefing table, settling back into a plush leather chair and folding her arms across her chest. Unlike the labs and the barracks, and everything else, this ‘managerial’ haven must have been untouched by the blast that had killed so many transgenics. Figures the uppers would put a safety net in place for their own skins in case someone actually did try to cauterize the site.
“You don’t fool me, you know.”
That caught her attention; she stopped scanning the room to look at the blonde once more.
Casey nodded. “Max.”
She didn’t even bat an eyelash. “It’s Sam, actually.”
“Please,” Casey dropped her feet abruptly, sitting back up. “why would 453 trek all the way from Vancouver just to chat with Alec? I knew it was you as soon as they made the radio call.”
Max just stared blankly at the other woman. Then she shrugged, giving in. What did it matter if prissy knew who she was?
“I take it Alec knows it's me, then.”
“Of course he does,” Casey scoffed.
“And what, he sent you to run interference?” Max demanded, stepping more fully into the room.
Casey shrugged noncommittally, and Max didn’t know what to make of it, so she just glared at the woman.
They stayed like that for a minute, Max glaring, Casey staring blandly back, until the blonde couldn’t contain it anymore.
“He doesn’t love you, you know.”
Max started out of her glare, and frowned in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“Alec,” Casey shrugged. “He doesn’t love you.”
Max just arched one cool eyebrow. “I’m sorry, is that supposed to hurt my feelings?”
“Feelings? See, that’s the problem with sex.” Casey ignored her, continuing, “Sex is always messy. People’s emotions get jumbled up. They start feeling things that aren’t really there.”
“What is this?” Max asked in dark amusement. “Now you tryin’ to tell me that we're confused and that Alec loves me or that I think I love Alec? News flash, he led a revolt against me. We're not exactly best friends. So make up your mind and spit out whatever it is you're trying to say.” Max didn’t even want to know how Casey had known that she was sleeping with Alec. Had he told her? Did he talk about Max to this platinum enigma? Max hated not knowing who the hell this girl was.
“I’m just warning you to be careful of that line that you two are tiptoeing,” Casey shrugged. “You never know when things will start to get,” Her golden eyes flicked up and down across Max’s frame, her perfect nose wrinkled. “Messy.”
So maybe she'd didn't know her, but Max was finding it ridiculously easy to dislike her. She kept her voice bland, though. “Thanks for the tip.”
“You want another one?” Casey’s face hardened and she stood from her chair. “Sex, to Alec, is never messy. Sex, to him, is always just sex. Nothing else.”
“Oh, I get why Alec sent you to stall me, now.” Max folded her arms across her chest, her face bland. “He wanted you to talk me to death.”
“Maybe he wanted me to give you a message,” Casey stalked up to Max, her eyes darkening.
Ah, now little girl wanted to play? Puh-lease; Max had dealt with Ordinaries that were better at cattiness then this girl. She rolled her eyes. “What, that besides the feline parts in X-5 DNA, there’s a healthy heaping of ‘bitch’ as well?”
Casey’s eyes flashed, her face twisted in hate. “Better to be Alec’s bitch than just another one of his whores.”
Max’s hand cracked against the girl’s pale cheek. The room echoed with the sound of the slap for a long moment, and then Max’s voice, deceptively light, filled the silence. “That was just a warning shot. Call me a whore again, and we’ll see what kind of damage I can really do.”
Casey’s hand came up to press against her high, reddening cheekbone lightly; she looked a little shocked. “You… you hit me.”
“Slapped, actually.” She kept her voice light. Max refused to give this bitch the satisfaction of seeing her angry. “If you want me to really hit you, that can be arranged, too.”
Casey’s hand dropped back down, her eyes narrowed. “You can play the tough girl all you want. It won’t change the facts; you're nothing to him, nothing more than a fuck."
"Well aren't you Miss Positivity."
Max's continuance of not caring was obviously frustrating the taller woman. "Don't you get it? You're just a conquest! The girl that he couldn't have; he's going to get tired of you and-"
"Seriously," Max interrupted. "When are you going to get interesting?"
Casey's attractive face... not quite as attractive when it was ice-cold. She drew herself up, and glared down at Max. "Fine, act like you don't care. I know better, even if you won't admit it. Nothing will change the fact that Alec didn’t just leave Seattle without an explanation and take all the transgenics with him." Max's eyes narrowed in wariness. A cruel light lit within golden eyes as Casey continued. " Alec left without an explanation and he took me with him. He didn’t choose you, Max. He chose me.”
Max didn’t know the details. She had no idea what this girl’s relationship to Alec was. But even so, the statement… it hurt a little bit. She hadn't been worth an explanation, had she? Isn't that what had always bothered her most about the whole damn thing? God, what was she even doing here? Max blinked, and was faced with the realization that she didn’t want to spend even one more second breathing the same air as this cow.
“When you see Alec,” Max said blandly, “tell him he knocked up his whore.”
She watched as everything within Casey imploded, as the girl fell still in shock. Max whirled on her heel, and stomped out of the room. The anger, so powerful, was finally allowed free rein, and the door slammed, loud and satisfying, behind her.
Alec did his best to not trot too quickly down the long hallway. His steps faltered and failed, however, when he saw Max storming out of the briefing room.
“Max?”
She turned to him, her eyes red and glaring, before spinning and stalking off down the hallway.
“Max!”
She didn’t know how he crossed the distance so quickly, just knew that his fingers curled over her shoulder, he spun her and stepped in, her back hit the wall, and she was trapped by him. “Let go of me,” She hissed up at him.
“No.” He replied blandly. His eyes slid across her cherished, hated, familiar face. “You seem angry.”
She shoved him away. “You think?!” He eyeballed her for a moment before taking another step back, leaning into the opposite wall. When his voice came again, it was more tired than anything else.
“Alright. I’ll bite. Why are you angry? And what are you doing here?”
Max stared at him for a moment, like, are you serious?! She shook it away, scowling at him. Why was she angry? Because he had sicced his pitbull girlfriend, or whatever the hell Casey was, on her. And on top of that, he was running a fucking war against Familiars out of Manticore’s old buildings! Not that she was gonna admit to that first part, though.
“Why do you think? Why wouldn’t I come here? You’ve recreated fucking Manticore, Alec!”
“No, I haven’t.” His voice was dark, defensive. Of course he was defensive; sometimes even he was worried that he was crossing some kind of invisible line. He struggled with that every damn day.
“You’re running military ops out of Gillete, Wyoming.” She threw back scathingly. “Excuse me if I fail to see the difference.”
His eyes narrowed, he refused to budge from his spot by the wall, and he gave her all the excuses that he stayed up at nights telling himself. “I’m not forcing people to stay here, Max. There’s no bars on the windows, no machine guns pointing inwards. I saw empty buildings that transgenics were familiar with, comfortable with, that no one has looked at in years, and I capitalized on the opportunity.”
She was still a little shell-shocked, amazed that he could even attempt to defend himself. “Are you stupid? Of course they’re comfortable here! This was their prison for most of their lives!”
He frowned, and opened his mouth-
But she continued angrily. “You think you helped them by leading them out of Seattle? All you’ve done, at the end of the day, is exchanged their old cage for an even older one.”
He scowled. “This is what they chose, Max. This is what they choose, everyday.”
“Of course!” She shouted back. “That’s because they’re not the wild tigers, Alec!” He started in surprise. Maybe part of him was just shocked she even remembered him talking about that, over a year ago. She tried to calm her voice; it was strained, but at least she wasn’t shouting anymore. “They’re not the wild tigers. They’re the ones that were born in captivity, the ones that don’t know any better.”
He stared at her in surprise. She shook her head and muttered, “And you call Terminal City ‘the Zoo.’”
His face descended into stone, his voice harsh and biting. “So, you’ve got it all figured out then, huh? Well bully for you. You came all this way just to throw that at me?”
She scowled at his cutting tone, his cold eyes. This, this was the man that was to be the father of her child? “Maybe,” She raged, and remembering Casey’s gloating stare, her vile tongue, added, “Why don’t you ask your other whore why I’m here?”
“My other-?” Alec blinked in confusion, straightening. Before his eyes narrowed in cold anger. “You mean Casey?”
“That is the girl you sent to stall me, right?”
Sent to stall-? He dismissed it. He seemed oblivious to her blasé tone, took two large steps towards her, and towered over her. “What is this? Your attempt at jealousy, Max?” He leaned in, his angry breaths, clenched teeth, close to her face. “Don’t you ever call her that again. Casey and I go way back; much farther than you and I do.”
Max ducked away from him, backing away. “So I heard. That’s why you chose her over me, right?”
Alec was still slightly confused, still misreading her entirely, and he stalked after her. “What, you think that whole Levi thing was just a simple case of Max versus Casey? Wake up, honey! The world doesn’t revolve around you!”
Max didn’t understand the Levi reference, but she didn’t like his tone, and she was already angry to begin with. Especially when he was getting mad at her when all she was doing was throwing Casey’s words into his face. She spun and her pace quickened. He reached for her, and maybe if he’d caught her, maybe it would have gone differently. But she slipped out of the way and she reached the door before he could reach her. It was all he could do to scowl angrily at her back. And he was still too angry, too defensive and caged and confused about the Casey thing , too surprised to be caught on his home turf, and he lashed out, shouting after her. “Why are you acting like this? You’re not my girlfriend! You’re just the girl I fuck.”
She paused in the door way, turned and looked at him with a pale face. She blinked at him, once, twice, and that horrified face, like he’d just confirmed every terrible thought she had ever had about him, it made something within him flag. He kept his shoulders square; she was the one that needed to come correct, not him.
Finally, her face hardened.
“Don’t ever come back to T.C.” She prided herself on the small things; her voice didn’t waver, her chin lifted with strength she didn’t really feel. “I never want to see you again.”
The door slammed shut behind her and he was staring blankly at the wall, part of him wondering what the hell had just happened, part of him wanting to go after, the rest of him just mad in that way that only she could get him. He scowled and spun, heading back down the hallway in the opposite direction. He reached the doorway pretty quickly and almost yanked it off its hinges.
Somehow, he wasn’t surprised to find that Casey was still waiting for him.
“What the hell did you say to her?”
“What, me?” Casey replied in shock to his rage. “What the hell did she say to you?”
He scowled. “Like you couldn’t hear everything that just happened.” What was she even doing down here?
Casey paused for a long moment, and then shrugged, looking away. “I’m sorry. I was curious; I’ve never spoken to her before.” She looked up and shook her head. “Lemme tell you, you sure know how to pick winners.”
Alec paused as well, ignoring her statement to take in the pink skin over her cheekbone. “What… Casey, did Max hit you?”
Casey shrugged again. “Girl’s got serious issues.”
Alec almost seemed livid. “God, that is so- I just-“ He paced for a moment in one direction, then again in the other. “I almost want to go after her and-“
“Why?” Casey interrupted. “So you can shout at each other some more? I think you said everything that needs to be said, Alec.”
Alec stopped mid-pace, turning to frown at her. He shrugged unhappily after a moment. He almost turned and stalked out. Instead he paused again, and grudgingly asked, “Did Max… Well, you heard her. Did she tell you something to tell me?”
“What’s there to say?” Casey demanded. “You heard her same as me. She never wants to see you again.”
Alec’s eyes sparked once more. “And that’s fine by me!” He turned, stalking out of the office, and the door rattled with the force of the slam.
Casey swallowed, her fingers coming up to probe at her red cheekbone. She slumped back into a chair, her eyes closing in weariness. She’d… she’d done the right thing. And she hadn't even really lied. She couldn’t tell Alec. If she told Alec… he’d choose Max. He’d choose Max for the wrong reasons. Her eyes firmed, her hand dropped back into her lap. She hoped that Max was intelligent enough to take care of the situation. If she had the baby, and Alec ever found out… Casey wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know how far Alec’s loyalty would stretch.
Max made the long drive home, alone. Made her way through T.C., alone. Climbed up an old stairwell and let herself into a cold apartment, alone. Slumped in the corner by the door, slid down the wall, and buried her head in her arms. And as she did so, her beeper went off.
She hated that a part of her hoped… She angled its face to meet her eyes. Just Logan… probably calling to see if she made it back to Seattle okay. Well, she’d made it back to Seattle.
But how would it ever be okay?
She ripped the pager from her belt, throwing it across the room, and not even the simple rage of the act could keep the harsh sob from escaping her throat. It was over. It was all over. Why couldn't she have just kept hating him?