ALL MY SINS REMEMBER'D BB FIC (PART 2)
Title: All My Sins Remember'd
Rating: M15+
Characters and/or pairings: Alec McDowell, Max Guevara, Alec/Max
Warnings: Violence, adult situations
Disclaimer
Spoilers: Set after Freak Nation in the non-existent season three :D
AO3 Link
Summary: It's one step forward, two steps back. Just as Alec and Max are trying to decide what sort of 'relationship' they have, Logan and Max disappear with Max leaving a note that simply says, "I'm sorry". Picking up the pieces of his broken heart, and the Transgenic city she has left behind, Alec takes control of TC and its people. Three years later and, with no word from her, Max suddenly turns up with no memory of who or what she is. Necessity demands that she learn all about herself and her past so that she is no longer a threat to them but Alec can't bring himself to tell her about their 'almost'.
Authors note: Written for darkangel_bb. The incredible sierraphoenix did a video for this which is absolutely fantastic! Check it out, though you might end up watching it repetitively like I am :P *squishes* for my beta homentheatre who puts up with my OCD and betas things for me at the last minute :P
I got the idea from a prompt over at NWP. I think it was MeryKey who posted it but it was a while ago so I'm not so sure anymore :P
Also, don't have a heart attack because it seems so incomplete! I know there are a couple of loose ends but there is enough from the missing parts to do well over another 10k fic so I thought I'd add it as my submission for the next round! Means that I will actually have something and I get to keep you guys hanging on by a thread!!! *insert evil grin*
(PART ONE)
“What’s the verdict?” Mole asked as Alec entered Command.
Joshua stood quickly from the seat he had been in. “Little Fella alright?”
Alec wore a pained smile as he gave him a pat on the shoulder. “She’s in there somewhere. Doesn’t know a thing but she’s still there.”
Mole eyed him cautiously while Josh smiled and picked Alec up in a bone crushing hug. He gave a small wiggle and Joshua put him down, the huge grin never leaving his face.
“Can I see Little Fella?”
Alec took a deep breath. “Sorry Josh.” Joshua sat down with a thump in a nearby chair with a whine. “Listen Josh, she just doesn’t remember anyone. She doesn’t even know she’s Transgenic so we need to take baby steps.”
“She doesn’t know she’s Transgenic? But what would be the point in that? She’d have more success doing whatever they had her doing if she remembered her training.” Dix said as he swivelled around in his chair.
Mole moved his cigar to the side. “Maybe that’s why. Remembering anything to do with Manticore or us could ruin the job they’ve done on her.”
“I wouldn’t rule it out.” Alec moved toward his office. “But until we start seeing some changes, we’re gonna need to take things slowly. For now we’ve got her under lock down so we’re all safe and we’ve removed the chip they’d put in her. Kellie’s looking for any more but she doesn’t think there’ll be any. I don’t want anyone trying to get in to see her though! Kellie’ll just turn you away if you try so make sure everyone knows - we’re gonna do this the right way.”
Dix nodded and turned back around to his computer monitors and Mole pushed himself off of the desk he was leaning on as he strode away with a nod. Joshua just looked at his hands before glancing back up at Alec.
“No way Josh! I need you as my secret weapon on this, okay buddy? Max may not remember a lot of people but I’m sure you’ll be able to get through to her, We just need to wait until the right time, okay?”
He wasn’t sure if Joshua bought it or not but he nodded nevertheless before standing up and heading out of TC. Alec sighed. He didn’t exactly lie to him; there was every chance that seeing Josh would spark some recognition in Max but mostly he just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Having already seen the empty look in her eyes and knowing that she had no idea who you were had been heartbreaking and he didn’t know if Joshua would be able to cope.
He’d only just sat back down at his desk when a message popped up from Kellie.
‘There’s something you should see.’
He didn’t even pause before launching himself out of his seat and almost blurring to the med bay. When he pushed open the doors, Kellie pointed to her screen and began talking.
“There’s something in her system. Beaker’s trying to figure out how long it’s gonna last but I’ve never seen this before. It’s definitely not any drug I’ve ever seen. It seems to be some sort of memory suppressant - you can see here where it’s effectively blanketing her brain; it doesn’t appear to do anything else in her body.”
“So, her memories will come back when it wears off?”
Kellie shook her head quickly. “Oh no, it’s not that easy. She’s still gonna need a lot of work but I’d say that Max put up one hell of a fight and they had no choice but to use this drug to control her. I know you don’t particularly want to hear this but I think you should head down to Milton Avenue - I think it’s our best bet.”
“I’m not letting someone mess around in Max’s brain - that’s how she ended up like this!”
Kellie smiled sadly. “I don’t think so. Either way, no one else but them is experienced enough to deal with her. We could just make things worse.”
He sighed and looked through the open door into Max’s room. Kellie was absolutely right; if anyone was going to be able to get through to her, it would be a Psy-Ops unit. But he didn’t have to be happy about it. He’d had enough experience with them to know what they were capable of, even if they’d been just as much under orders as he’d been.
He let his feet lead him to the furthest end of TC. It had been a mutual decision - none of the Transgenics that had experienced a Psy-Ops wanted them nearby and the few that were around tried to stay away from those that they’d hurt. All in all, they were basically still good people and Max had actually had the best rapport with them. She’d made sure that they weren’t alienated from everyone else and although he’d tried to do the same in the last few years, he knew it wasn’t the same.
He headed for one of the business buildings on Milton Avenue - although most Transgenics stayed away, a few still wanted to know things, wanted to access forgotten memories and actively sought them out. They’d set up in one of the business buildings, turning the upper floors into living space and the ground floor into a working space. When he opened the door and looked around the floor, he saw a pretty blonde walking out of one of the offices.
“Alec, uh, hi... what can I do for you?”
He gave Alcina a small smile. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Max is here. I need someone to come down to the med bay and undo the damage that was done.”
She looked up from where she was wringing her hands and shook her head. “Alec, that’s really risky. We don’t know how it was done. If we do the wrong thing, she’ll be as good as gone.”
Alec stared at her, making her fidget under his gaze. “If you don’t do it, she’ll be terminated anyway. At least this way she has a chance.”
Alcina looked back at the offices and gave a sigh. “Okay, I’ll do it.” He raised an eyebrow but she shook her head. “We knew it was a matter of time before you came down here. No one is willing to risk your wrath Alec.”
He didn’t deny it, opting to simply turn around and lead her out into the street.
___________________________________________
She walked down the long corridor and stopped abruptly when she reached a ‘T’ section. She frowned. The walls were a common dark grey completely bare and nondescript, the walls a simple concrete with no distinguishing features. There was no lighting at all and she had to use her superior eyesight to see ahead. All in all, it was average. Just as she had expected.
What she hadn’t expected was the ‘T’ section.
Every single Transgenic had the same layout - a long, single corridor and a room with a locked door at the end. Humans had an even more simplistic layout with a mere step or two before the only room. She’d heard rumours when they’d captured the escaped unit leader of a maze of corridors that seemed to go nowhere before finally finding access to the room at the centre of the maze. She hadn’t believed it, of course. She’d thought it had all been hype, something to keep the Psy-Op’s on their feet.
She wasn’t exactly looking at a maze, but there were two possible options before her and neither one had a room at the end. She wondered if it was something genetic before tossing away the possibility. She’d worked on X5-453 once and it had been completely normal and routine. That just left the possibility that it was something learned and if the rumours were true, perhaps the entire escaped unit had the same ability.
She wondered whether they knew it or not.
Taking a chance she turned left before quickly turning around and heading right instead. She was in uncharted territory and had to work on instinct alone - although that could just be called unexplored experience and mostly worthless in her opinion. No one had any concrete information about this - the Psy-Op that had worked on X5-599 had been terminated after that particular job and it had only served to fuel the rumours. She hadn’t believed it, her loyalty in Manticore too strong at the time, but now she wondered if he’d been terminated because of the ‘trouble’ he’d had completing the job or because he’d seen too much. She idly wondered if she’d ever get the opportunity to work on any of the other escapees - if it was a learned trait, it could be extremely beneficial for TC in their fight against both Manticore and the Conclave.
She felt like she’d been walking for hours with only one or two turns when she came upon a locked door. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling in triumph and she reached for the handle expectantly. A sliver of fear ran down her spine when the doorknob turned and the door fell open. An unlocked door meant an empty mind, one that had already been wiped, and if Max truly was gone then all hell was gonna break loose and she’d been directly in the firing line.
The room was dark but her eyes picked up the definitions of the few pieces of furniture, including a chair and table and numerous filing cabinets. Every drawer was opened, one or two scraps of paper on the ground but none with any writing. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and she frowned as she ran a finger along the table’s edge. Dust was rare; it was usually only seen in humans that had been kept alive by machines long after their brains had died and was indicative of no one ‘being home’. But Max was a walking, talking, functioning person - it made no sense.
Seeing nothing left, she turned to exit, a spot on the floor drawing her attention. It was a set of footprints along the edge of the room, indicating that someone had been in recently. Her initial thought was that it belonged to whomever had control of Max but they wouldn’t stick to the edges. They would have walked right in. She turned around again, trying to trace the path of the footsteps but they seemed to vanish toward the back of the room and there were none leading back out.
She turned and smiled; a small smile, but a smile nonetheless as she thought about the implications. Remembering the turns she had taken to get to the room, she turned around and ran back the way she had come.
___________________________________________
Alcina opened her eyes and nodded once to Alec. He made no acknowledgement as he turned and walked out of the room, Alcina following, as they left the sedated Max to wake up on her own. Kellie joined them in the adjoining room.
“I think I have good news and bad news.”
Alec nearly growled. “Think?”
She warily took a step back. “It’s just... well... see, there’s a room, as you already know, and that’s where you are. Back in Manticore there were rumours that one of the X’s, X5-599, managed to somehow... alter... himself to the point where anybody looking for him had to go through a maze to get to him. The Psy-Op was eliminated straight afterward so there was nothing else to it - it was just a rumour.”
Alec straightened. “Are you saying that Max has the same thing that Zack did? That she’s still in there?”
“I don’t know. I mean, yes, it’s like a maze in there. Sorta. Not as sophisticated. But that’s definitely not normal. I’m thinking that it might be something that X5-5 - Zack, taught them. Some sort of preservation technique to keep their mind intact in case they were ever captured. The other unit members that were recaptured were dealt with off-site so I don’t know any- “
“Ally...”
Alcina stopped and looked at Kellie who merely glanced at a very still Alec. His fists were clenched tightly and his jaw was clearly clenched. She gluped.
“Ah, yes, I think that Max might be there still. I found the room and it was completely empty, definitely some serious mind control going on, but there were signs that someone had been there recently, someone that had been trying not to get caught.”
Kellie smiled. “And why would they bother if they thought they already had her right where they wanted her?”
“Exactly.”
Kellie looked up at Alec who had begun pacing the room. He ran his hand through his hair distractedly before rubbing the back of his neck.
“So, you’re saying we can get Max back?”
Alcina cringed at Alec. “I’m not sure. If it was someone else, no. If it was Max, maybe. But it’s not something I can do. If she’s hiding somewhere in her mind, your best bet is to try and draw her out. Everything she places into her memory now should be there inside her head somewhere but there’s nothing. I suspect that they were constantly erasing short term memory after each mission she went on. If you start surrounding her with things that were familiar: people, places, etc, you might be able to coax her out from wherever she is. Like bringing back a human. It’s gonna take time though.”
Kellie nodded toward the door and Alcina started to leave. She turned back around when she reached the doorway.
“Oh, there’s something else you should know.” Alec and Kellie looked up at her. “When I found the room, it was completely coated in dust. I’d say that whatever happened to Max, whoever captured her and did this to her, did it a while ago. And I’m talking years.”
Alcina walked out the door and Kellie turned back to a shell shocked Alec. “Alec - “
He sat down on a chair and put his head in his hands. “Years!” Kellie took a step toward him but Alec stood quickly. “I should have looked for her! I should have done something!”
“You couldn’t have known...”
“But I should have! I should’ve known that something wasn’t right but I was too damn - “
Alec stopped and took a few deep breaths, the colour draining from his face as he strode from the room and walked to the outside of the decontamination chamber. Max was still laying on the slab but her eyes were open and she stared at the ceiling. He moved to raise his hand to the glass but stopped and lowered it quickly.
“I let this happen to her.”
“No you didn’t,” Kellie said from behind him, “you had no way of knowing what had happened. You’re not responsible. You couldn’t have done anything.”
Alec took a deep breath. “I can do something now. You heard what Alcina said - familiar surrounding and people. Get her ready to go, take any last minute tests that you need to. Give me ten minutes then take her over to her place. She can stay there from now on. I’ll have someone quickly go by her place and make sure things are okay and I’ll send Joshua by. Just stay with her for the afternoon. I’ll get someone to stay with her tonight.”
Alec turned and left the room. When he reached the doorway, Kellie called out to him but he ignored her and kept walking. On his way to TC, he ran into Gem and asked her to make sure that Max’s room was clean enough for her to stay in. He didn’t give her any further instructions, nor did he answer any of her questions. He asked Luke to find Joshua and send him around to Max’s place. Luke gave him a confused look before quickly ducking out of Command. Alec ignored the pointed look from Mole, went into his office and closed the door behind him.
He leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes, hoping that he could just wake up and find out that everything had just been a dream; finding her, the last three years - he’d even go back to before they kissed. He’d thought that her running off to be with Logan had been heart wrenching. The sleepless nights, the constant pain in his chest; none of that compared to the knowledge that Max had probably gone missing because she’d been captured. How many nights had she thought he’d be there to rescue her? How long had she believed that someone would come before she’d finally given up hope? How much must she hate him for not even trying? He knew he hated himself for it.
She’d left that night to set things straight with Logan. To finally tell him the truth. To make sure that things had ended. Who’s to say that the note under the keyboard was meant for him? Perhaps she’d left it there and been captured as she was leaving his place. She could have been on her way back, just like she’d said she would. Alec turned around and headed for his shabby desk. He dropped his head onto the scattered papers, eager to avoid his reflection in the monitor. He didn’t want to know what he looked like; he suspected it was bad enough already.
Alec’s head shot up as a thought occurred to him. Without wasting time, he sent a quick message to Dix and began scouring the database for the information he was looking for. He’d just pulled up an old file when Dix poked his head around the door.
“Alec?”
Alec ushered him in and watched at he closed the door and stood on the other side of the desk. “I want you to run a trace. Send it back three years and match up anything from the surrounding areas that correlates to information from the Eyes Only file.”
“Alec, uh, we’ve already had a search on the information. You set it up yourself. If he adds anything else to those files, we’ll know.”
Alec shook his head. “No, I want information on the cases themselves. Alcina told us that Max was captured years ago - if she went missing because... well, if they took her, they could have taken him too. If they pulled information from him, they may have tried to use that to their advantage. I wanna know if anyone in those files suddenly got richer, more powerful, turned up dead, whatever. I wanna know if they had him as well and how much they pulled from him. If enough things were pulled- “
“Then they could have information about us too.”
“Exactly. Run a search, as low-key as possible, and get back to me asap.”
Dix nodded and nearly tripped over his feet trying to get out of the room quickly. Alec turned back to the computer and quickly clicked through the files that he pretty much knew by heart. The paused as he hovered over the only folder he hadn’t opened. It was labelled ‘946’ and he didn’t need to be as intellectually gifted as he was to figure out that his and Max’s barcodes together added to it. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to open it in the past although he had spent many nights hovering over it wondering what was in it. Anything that grouped he and Max together was undoubtedly filled with something painful and he’d never had the guts to see.
He double clicked.
A bunch of files were inside, mostly medical reports that Logan had compiled about Max over the time he had known her, including some from her days as a child from Manticore. Presumably those had come from Lydecker. There were a couple on him, even a DNA report that he’d never seen himself. One of the last documents he opened was a lab report dated just months before his disappearance. It was a DNA study between his, Logan and Max’s DNA with an initial conclusion that the combination DNA seemed a likely source for study. Rereading the report more carefully, he realised that Logan had submitted his DNA specifically so that the combined DNA from he and Max could be tested against the virus Manticore had given him. Initial reports had shown that the virus was eliminated from the blood samples within six hours, even in its mutated form, and was requesting more samples to be certain.
He sat back in his chair. Logan had done it. He’d found a cure for the virus and it was just like Manticore to be twisted enough to use the captor’s DNA as a catalyst for its destruction. After all, if Alec’s mission was to retrieve Max and Logan, bringing them back to Manticore, who on earth would think to use him any further in the mix. Joshua had given Logan blood, Alec himself had even donated. But Max never had, knowing that if she even touched him she’d kill him, let alone mix her blood with his. But a mixture of his with Max’s had been enough to eliminate the virus once it began reacting in his blood. He wondered how on earth Logan had possibly come up with the idea.
If he’d seen the file three years ago, it would have just cemented his belief that they’d run off together. Finally free of the virus that had been keeping them apart, they could do anything. But now he saw it as a trap. The results were legitimate but results like that would have raised more than a few eyebrows. And it only required one loose lipped lab technician to start a whisper that would no doubt reach some very interested ears. Logan was a fool to think that anyone could be trusted with information like that.
He must have read and reread the file hundreds of times because when a message popped up on his screen, Alec realised that night had fallen already. The message was from Kellie saying that she’d had to return to the med bay but that Joshua had been more than happy to stay the night with Max. Even still, she’d asked Tosh to keep an eye on the both of them surreptitiously during the night. She’d return to Max’s apartment in the morning to run the last round of tests to see if her blood levels had returned to normal.
Alec fell asleep after that, his tired eyes closing as his head drooped down to his desk.
___________________________________________
As the next few months passed, Max seemed to be more comfortable around TC. There had been only two escape attempts in the first week before she seemed resigned to just wait for rescue. Although she was given no duties, Alec often saw her busying herself with odd jobs, though she remained stoic. Within hours of her being released from the med bay, word had spread that Max had been captured and brainwashed and the animosity that had followed her name since her disappearance seemed to dissipate. Alec almost smiled the first time he saw Gem talking with Max as they watched over the toddlers; Max clearly had had no desire to be with her but her infectious personality seemed to keep Max rooted to the spot.
Joshua spent almost every free moment with Max, sleeping in her living room and watching over her. He completed numerous paintings, each one chronicling the adventures he’d shared with her since they’d first met and he even allowed her to go into the back room of his studio where he kept his one and only painting of Annie.
Initially, Alec had noticed Max observing the Transgenics and the city with the obvious intention of storing information. He wasn’t sure when she had stopped doing it, he just knew that one day he watched her being roped into setting up a new gym across town and realised that she was no longer checking for escape routes or sizing up potential threats. Almost effortlessly, she seemed to sit back into her old life.
Except she showed no signs of remembering things.
Her personality was almost the same. She was, perhaps, a slightly softer version of her old self and there were times when she spoke with someone and he would forget all about the fact that she was learning everything for the first time. But then she would cock her head to the side or frown in confusion and everything rushed right back to him. It was one of the reasons why he kept his distance from her.
They’d had very little contact since she moved back into her old apartment. Even though he lived directly across the hall, he chose to spend most nights either on his lounge or asleep on his desk. The rare time or two that he was kicked out by a well meaning friend, he simply walked to Joshua’s practically empty space and grabbed a few hours there. Mole had made a comment or two about the amount of work he’d been putting in but Alec had brushed him off and ignored the questioning looks the others had given him. If he wanted to work round the clock, that was his prerogative. TC needed as much attention as it could get and there was an almost never ending stream of issues that cropped up from the rebuilding city. Besides, Max had a whole life to rediscover.
He just wasn’t sure if he wanted to be a part of it.
He and Max had had a ‘moment’ probably just hours before she disappeared so if she ever regained that memory, it would undoubtedly be one of the last. Alec had barely entertained the notion that he had loved her because ‘they’ had never been and he was still struggling with his own issues surrounding her disappearance. A part of him still hated her for running off with Logan, even though that was fairly unlikely now, and as much as he tried to get rid of it, the feeling still lagged. In the time he had known her, they’d barely been civil half the time and awkward friends for the other half. There had always been the feeling that ‘friends’ was never going to be their zone and he had no idea how to react with her now if they couldn’t be friends.
It was nearly a year later when a knock sounded on his door and he absently called for them to enter as he tried to finish up the latest report. Max entered a little hesitantly but when she saw him abandon his work in surprise, she took that as an invitation for discussion and closed the door behind her.
“Max, uh, hi. What can I do for you?”
She looked around his room quickly, her eyes absorbing every detail of the obviously lived in space before they settled on him. She took a step toward him.
“I was just wondering if I could talk with you for a minute. I have some questions.”
Alec rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and tried not to stumble over his words as he slipped his Manticore mask into place. “What sort of questions?”
“Just a few things about my memory. Everyone here knows me from about the time the siege started but I can’t get a handle on anything before that. I guess I wasn’t exactly communicative about all that.”
“Have you talked with Josh?”
Max nodded and took another step forward, reaching out her hand to relax it on the back of the chair opposite him. “I’ve heard all about Manticore, all the things these people went through, but if I have a past anything like that, there’d be no way I’d tell him those sorts of things. It’d... well, I don’t think I could handle seeing him like that.”
Alec stood slowly from his desk, his eyes filled with remorse. “Look, I’m sorry Max but I met you at the same time Josh did so if he doesn’t know anyth-”
Max stepped forward quickly. “I want to know! You know something, I know you do! I’ve heard a ton of stories about my past and just about all of them have you in it! This distance we have here is not how we were before - it can’t be if we started this whole thing together. Why won’t you just tell me?”
Alec sighed. “Max, you hated me. From the minute I walked into your cell at Manticore, there was nothing but hostility.”
“Then why did we start this? Why would I go into war with you if you didn’t have my back?”
He tried not to show his frustration as he clenched his fists. “WE didn’t start this Max, you did. You made the decision all by yourself and the rest of us just followed suit. I only stepped up to help because the Transhumans were the only ones that trusted you and there needed to be unity. When you left us all behind, I just simply picked up your slack.”
“I didn’t leave Alec! I was captured and brainwashed! Spent endless weeks being tortured over and over again until they decided to start invading my brain and erasing me! Intent on taking away bit by bit until I was just a mindless automaton that could complete missions they weren’t able to! I didn’t pack up and leave!”
He took a deep breath and looked down at his desk. “I know that, okay. I know. I’m sorry. But that’s not going to change the fact that I don’t know you.”
“So there was never anything between us?”
He looked up sharply and frowned. She sounded so assured and so angry that he wasn’t entirely sure what she was asking. “What do you mean?”
“You and I, Alec. Were we ever anything more than just two people who hated each other but were lumped together?”
His heart began racing as the one question he hoped she’d never ask finally popped up. It was a breaking point, everything afterward would determine the one moment before him. If he said ‘no’ she’d probably start off again from scratch, leaving everything they’d had between her in the dust. But saying ‘yes’ was impossible if he still wasn’t sure how he felt and whether or not he could overcome his own issues. He looked away as he fought for an answer before looking back at her with a frown.
“Do you remember?”
Max scoffed. “What? No! That’s why I’m asking you! Because I can’t get a simple answer!”
“But... you said...” He scrutinised her as his eidetic memory played over their conversation, giving him the answer he was looking for. “You said that you’d been tortured, stripped away bit by bit.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So?”
“Well, we don’t know what happened to you. No one does. We don’t even know who had you.”
Max shook her head. “From what I’ve heard, it was either Manticore or the Conclave. Either one would’ve undoubtedly been over the moon to get their chance to do a bit of experimenting. I was just putting two and two together but it seems that you come up with five so you tell me - what is it that I’m supposed to have remembered?”
He wanted to back down, to just trust that Max was honest with him, but they’d never really been good at backing down from each other and the opportunity to press the issue with her had been missing for so long. He carefully stepped around his desk, his long strides making quick work of the distance between them and his eyes remaining locked on hers. There was a flicker of hesitation in her eyes as he drew near but she clenched her jaw and stood her ground, as though she were unsure about whether or not he would lash out at her. He stopped just centimetres in front of her, his hazel eyes locking with her brown ones.
“I don’t know - you tell me.”
She looked uncertain suddenly, her eyes flicking back and forth between his, but it was the split second that she glanced down at his lips when he pulled her forward, pressing his lips against hers. He half expected her to shove him backward. The other half expected a moment or more of hesitancy. But when she eagerly returned his kiss, his arms held her closer and he knew.
Her body shifted against his and he pulled back, his eyes searching hers for answers.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
She shook her head honestly. “Not for certain. I didn’t know if I was remembering something or if it’d just been a dream.”
“What did you remember?”
“Fighting with you; kissing you. It’s not a whole memory, just flashes, and I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. I, I didn’t know if what I was feeling was real or not.”
“And now?”
Alec watched her smile before she leaned forward and softly kissed him.
Rating: M15+
Characters and/or pairings: Alec McDowell, Max Guevara, Alec/Max
Warnings: Violence, adult situations
Disclaimer
Spoilers: Set after Freak Nation in the non-existent season three :D
AO3 Link
Summary: It's one step forward, two steps back. Just as Alec and Max are trying to decide what sort of 'relationship' they have, Logan and Max disappear with Max leaving a note that simply says, "I'm sorry". Picking up the pieces of his broken heart, and the Transgenic city she has left behind, Alec takes control of TC and its people. Three years later and, with no word from her, Max suddenly turns up with no memory of who or what she is. Necessity demands that she learn all about herself and her past so that she is no longer a threat to them but Alec can't bring himself to tell her about their 'almost'.
Authors note: Written for darkangel_bb. The incredible sierraphoenix did a video for this which is absolutely fantastic! Check it out, though you might end up watching it repetitively like I am :P *squishes* for my beta homentheatre who puts up with my OCD and betas things for me at the last minute :P
I got the idea from a prompt over at NWP. I think it was MeryKey who posted it but it was a while ago so I'm not so sure anymore :P
Also, don't have a heart attack because it seems so incomplete! I know there are a couple of loose ends but there is enough from the missing parts to do well over another 10k fic so I thought I'd add it as my submission for the next round! Means that I will actually have something and I get to keep you guys hanging on by a thread!!! *insert evil grin*
(PART ONE)
“What’s the verdict?” Mole asked as Alec entered Command.
Joshua stood quickly from the seat he had been in. “Little Fella alright?”
Alec wore a pained smile as he gave him a pat on the shoulder. “She’s in there somewhere. Doesn’t know a thing but she’s still there.”
Mole eyed him cautiously while Josh smiled and picked Alec up in a bone crushing hug. He gave a small wiggle and Joshua put him down, the huge grin never leaving his face.
“Can I see Little Fella?”
Alec took a deep breath. “Sorry Josh.” Joshua sat down with a thump in a nearby chair with a whine. “Listen Josh, she just doesn’t remember anyone. She doesn’t even know she’s Transgenic so we need to take baby steps.”
“She doesn’t know she’s Transgenic? But what would be the point in that? She’d have more success doing whatever they had her doing if she remembered her training.” Dix said as he swivelled around in his chair.
Mole moved his cigar to the side. “Maybe that’s why. Remembering anything to do with Manticore or us could ruin the job they’ve done on her.”
“I wouldn’t rule it out.” Alec moved toward his office. “But until we start seeing some changes, we’re gonna need to take things slowly. For now we’ve got her under lock down so we’re all safe and we’ve removed the chip they’d put in her. Kellie’s looking for any more but she doesn’t think there’ll be any. I don’t want anyone trying to get in to see her though! Kellie’ll just turn you away if you try so make sure everyone knows - we’re gonna do this the right way.”
Dix nodded and turned back around to his computer monitors and Mole pushed himself off of the desk he was leaning on as he strode away with a nod. Joshua just looked at his hands before glancing back up at Alec.
“No way Josh! I need you as my secret weapon on this, okay buddy? Max may not remember a lot of people but I’m sure you’ll be able to get through to her, We just need to wait until the right time, okay?”
He wasn’t sure if Joshua bought it or not but he nodded nevertheless before standing up and heading out of TC. Alec sighed. He didn’t exactly lie to him; there was every chance that seeing Josh would spark some recognition in Max but mostly he just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Having already seen the empty look in her eyes and knowing that she had no idea who you were had been heartbreaking and he didn’t know if Joshua would be able to cope.
He’d only just sat back down at his desk when a message popped up from Kellie.
‘There’s something you should see.’
He didn’t even pause before launching himself out of his seat and almost blurring to the med bay. When he pushed open the doors, Kellie pointed to her screen and began talking.
“There’s something in her system. Beaker’s trying to figure out how long it’s gonna last but I’ve never seen this before. It’s definitely not any drug I’ve ever seen. It seems to be some sort of memory suppressant - you can see here where it’s effectively blanketing her brain; it doesn’t appear to do anything else in her body.”
“So, her memories will come back when it wears off?”
Kellie shook her head quickly. “Oh no, it’s not that easy. She’s still gonna need a lot of work but I’d say that Max put up one hell of a fight and they had no choice but to use this drug to control her. I know you don’t particularly want to hear this but I think you should head down to Milton Avenue - I think it’s our best bet.”
“I’m not letting someone mess around in Max’s brain - that’s how she ended up like this!”
Kellie smiled sadly. “I don’t think so. Either way, no one else but them is experienced enough to deal with her. We could just make things worse.”
He sighed and looked through the open door into Max’s room. Kellie was absolutely right; if anyone was going to be able to get through to her, it would be a Psy-Ops unit. But he didn’t have to be happy about it. He’d had enough experience with them to know what they were capable of, even if they’d been just as much under orders as he’d been.
He let his feet lead him to the furthest end of TC. It had been a mutual decision - none of the Transgenics that had experienced a Psy-Ops wanted them nearby and the few that were around tried to stay away from those that they’d hurt. All in all, they were basically still good people and Max had actually had the best rapport with them. She’d made sure that they weren’t alienated from everyone else and although he’d tried to do the same in the last few years, he knew it wasn’t the same.
He headed for one of the business buildings on Milton Avenue - although most Transgenics stayed away, a few still wanted to know things, wanted to access forgotten memories and actively sought them out. They’d set up in one of the business buildings, turning the upper floors into living space and the ground floor into a working space. When he opened the door and looked around the floor, he saw a pretty blonde walking out of one of the offices.
“Alec, uh, hi... what can I do for you?”
He gave Alcina a small smile. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Max is here. I need someone to come down to the med bay and undo the damage that was done.”
She looked up from where she was wringing her hands and shook her head. “Alec, that’s really risky. We don’t know how it was done. If we do the wrong thing, she’ll be as good as gone.”
Alec stared at her, making her fidget under his gaze. “If you don’t do it, she’ll be terminated anyway. At least this way she has a chance.”
Alcina looked back at the offices and gave a sigh. “Okay, I’ll do it.” He raised an eyebrow but she shook her head. “We knew it was a matter of time before you came down here. No one is willing to risk your wrath Alec.”
He didn’t deny it, opting to simply turn around and lead her out into the street.
___________________________________________
She walked down the long corridor and stopped abruptly when she reached a ‘T’ section. She frowned. The walls were a common dark grey completely bare and nondescript, the walls a simple concrete with no distinguishing features. There was no lighting at all and she had to use her superior eyesight to see ahead. All in all, it was average. Just as she had expected.
What she hadn’t expected was the ‘T’ section.
Every single Transgenic had the same layout - a long, single corridor and a room with a locked door at the end. Humans had an even more simplistic layout with a mere step or two before the only room. She’d heard rumours when they’d captured the escaped unit leader of a maze of corridors that seemed to go nowhere before finally finding access to the room at the centre of the maze. She hadn’t believed it, of course. She’d thought it had all been hype, something to keep the Psy-Op’s on their feet.
She wasn’t exactly looking at a maze, but there were two possible options before her and neither one had a room at the end. She wondered if it was something genetic before tossing away the possibility. She’d worked on X5-453 once and it had been completely normal and routine. That just left the possibility that it was something learned and if the rumours were true, perhaps the entire escaped unit had the same ability.
She wondered whether they knew it or not.
Taking a chance she turned left before quickly turning around and heading right instead. She was in uncharted territory and had to work on instinct alone - although that could just be called unexplored experience and mostly worthless in her opinion. No one had any concrete information about this - the Psy-Op that had worked on X5-599 had been terminated after that particular job and it had only served to fuel the rumours. She hadn’t believed it, her loyalty in Manticore too strong at the time, but now she wondered if he’d been terminated because of the ‘trouble’ he’d had completing the job or because he’d seen too much. She idly wondered if she’d ever get the opportunity to work on any of the other escapees - if it was a learned trait, it could be extremely beneficial for TC in their fight against both Manticore and the Conclave.
She felt like she’d been walking for hours with only one or two turns when she came upon a locked door. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling in triumph and she reached for the handle expectantly. A sliver of fear ran down her spine when the doorknob turned and the door fell open. An unlocked door meant an empty mind, one that had already been wiped, and if Max truly was gone then all hell was gonna break loose and she’d been directly in the firing line.
The room was dark but her eyes picked up the definitions of the few pieces of furniture, including a chair and table and numerous filing cabinets. Every drawer was opened, one or two scraps of paper on the ground but none with any writing. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and she frowned as she ran a finger along the table’s edge. Dust was rare; it was usually only seen in humans that had been kept alive by machines long after their brains had died and was indicative of no one ‘being home’. But Max was a walking, talking, functioning person - it made no sense.
Seeing nothing left, she turned to exit, a spot on the floor drawing her attention. It was a set of footprints along the edge of the room, indicating that someone had been in recently. Her initial thought was that it belonged to whomever had control of Max but they wouldn’t stick to the edges. They would have walked right in. She turned around again, trying to trace the path of the footsteps but they seemed to vanish toward the back of the room and there were none leading back out.
She turned and smiled; a small smile, but a smile nonetheless as she thought about the implications. Remembering the turns she had taken to get to the room, she turned around and ran back the way she had come.
___________________________________________
Alcina opened her eyes and nodded once to Alec. He made no acknowledgement as he turned and walked out of the room, Alcina following, as they left the sedated Max to wake up on her own. Kellie joined them in the adjoining room.
“I think I have good news and bad news.”
Alec nearly growled. “Think?”
She warily took a step back. “It’s just... well... see, there’s a room, as you already know, and that’s where you are. Back in Manticore there were rumours that one of the X’s, X5-599, managed to somehow... alter... himself to the point where anybody looking for him had to go through a maze to get to him. The Psy-Op was eliminated straight afterward so there was nothing else to it - it was just a rumour.”
Alec straightened. “Are you saying that Max has the same thing that Zack did? That she’s still in there?”
“I don’t know. I mean, yes, it’s like a maze in there. Sorta. Not as sophisticated. But that’s definitely not normal. I’m thinking that it might be something that X5-5 - Zack, taught them. Some sort of preservation technique to keep their mind intact in case they were ever captured. The other unit members that were recaptured were dealt with off-site so I don’t know any- “
“Ally...”
Alcina stopped and looked at Kellie who merely glanced at a very still Alec. His fists were clenched tightly and his jaw was clearly clenched. She gluped.
“Ah, yes, I think that Max might be there still. I found the room and it was completely empty, definitely some serious mind control going on, but there were signs that someone had been there recently, someone that had been trying not to get caught.”
Kellie smiled. “And why would they bother if they thought they already had her right where they wanted her?”
“Exactly.”
Kellie looked up at Alec who had begun pacing the room. He ran his hand through his hair distractedly before rubbing the back of his neck.
“So, you’re saying we can get Max back?”
Alcina cringed at Alec. “I’m not sure. If it was someone else, no. If it was Max, maybe. But it’s not something I can do. If she’s hiding somewhere in her mind, your best bet is to try and draw her out. Everything she places into her memory now should be there inside her head somewhere but there’s nothing. I suspect that they were constantly erasing short term memory after each mission she went on. If you start surrounding her with things that were familiar: people, places, etc, you might be able to coax her out from wherever she is. Like bringing back a human. It’s gonna take time though.”
Kellie nodded toward the door and Alcina started to leave. She turned back around when she reached the doorway.
“Oh, there’s something else you should know.” Alec and Kellie looked up at her. “When I found the room, it was completely coated in dust. I’d say that whatever happened to Max, whoever captured her and did this to her, did it a while ago. And I’m talking years.”
Alcina walked out the door and Kellie turned back to a shell shocked Alec. “Alec - “
He sat down on a chair and put his head in his hands. “Years!” Kellie took a step toward him but Alec stood quickly. “I should have looked for her! I should have done something!”
“You couldn’t have known...”
“But I should have! I should’ve known that something wasn’t right but I was too damn - “
Alec stopped and took a few deep breaths, the colour draining from his face as he strode from the room and walked to the outside of the decontamination chamber. Max was still laying on the slab but her eyes were open and she stared at the ceiling. He moved to raise his hand to the glass but stopped and lowered it quickly.
“I let this happen to her.”
“No you didn’t,” Kellie said from behind him, “you had no way of knowing what had happened. You’re not responsible. You couldn’t have done anything.”
Alec took a deep breath. “I can do something now. You heard what Alcina said - familiar surrounding and people. Get her ready to go, take any last minute tests that you need to. Give me ten minutes then take her over to her place. She can stay there from now on. I’ll have someone quickly go by her place and make sure things are okay and I’ll send Joshua by. Just stay with her for the afternoon. I’ll get someone to stay with her tonight.”
Alec turned and left the room. When he reached the doorway, Kellie called out to him but he ignored her and kept walking. On his way to TC, he ran into Gem and asked her to make sure that Max’s room was clean enough for her to stay in. He didn’t give her any further instructions, nor did he answer any of her questions. He asked Luke to find Joshua and send him around to Max’s place. Luke gave him a confused look before quickly ducking out of Command. Alec ignored the pointed look from Mole, went into his office and closed the door behind him.
He leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes, hoping that he could just wake up and find out that everything had just been a dream; finding her, the last three years - he’d even go back to before they kissed. He’d thought that her running off to be with Logan had been heart wrenching. The sleepless nights, the constant pain in his chest; none of that compared to the knowledge that Max had probably gone missing because she’d been captured. How many nights had she thought he’d be there to rescue her? How long had she believed that someone would come before she’d finally given up hope? How much must she hate him for not even trying? He knew he hated himself for it.
She’d left that night to set things straight with Logan. To finally tell him the truth. To make sure that things had ended. Who’s to say that the note under the keyboard was meant for him? Perhaps she’d left it there and been captured as she was leaving his place. She could have been on her way back, just like she’d said she would. Alec turned around and headed for his shabby desk. He dropped his head onto the scattered papers, eager to avoid his reflection in the monitor. He didn’t want to know what he looked like; he suspected it was bad enough already.
Alec’s head shot up as a thought occurred to him. Without wasting time, he sent a quick message to Dix and began scouring the database for the information he was looking for. He’d just pulled up an old file when Dix poked his head around the door.
“Alec?”
Alec ushered him in and watched at he closed the door and stood on the other side of the desk. “I want you to run a trace. Send it back three years and match up anything from the surrounding areas that correlates to information from the Eyes Only file.”
“Alec, uh, we’ve already had a search on the information. You set it up yourself. If he adds anything else to those files, we’ll know.”
Alec shook his head. “No, I want information on the cases themselves. Alcina told us that Max was captured years ago - if she went missing because... well, if they took her, they could have taken him too. If they pulled information from him, they may have tried to use that to their advantage. I wanna know if anyone in those files suddenly got richer, more powerful, turned up dead, whatever. I wanna know if they had him as well and how much they pulled from him. If enough things were pulled- “
“Then they could have information about us too.”
“Exactly. Run a search, as low-key as possible, and get back to me asap.”
Dix nodded and nearly tripped over his feet trying to get out of the room quickly. Alec turned back to the computer and quickly clicked through the files that he pretty much knew by heart. The paused as he hovered over the only folder he hadn’t opened. It was labelled ‘946’ and he didn’t need to be as intellectually gifted as he was to figure out that his and Max’s barcodes together added to it. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to open it in the past although he had spent many nights hovering over it wondering what was in it. Anything that grouped he and Max together was undoubtedly filled with something painful and he’d never had the guts to see.
He double clicked.
A bunch of files were inside, mostly medical reports that Logan had compiled about Max over the time he had known her, including some from her days as a child from Manticore. Presumably those had come from Lydecker. There were a couple on him, even a DNA report that he’d never seen himself. One of the last documents he opened was a lab report dated just months before his disappearance. It was a DNA study between his, Logan and Max’s DNA with an initial conclusion that the combination DNA seemed a likely source for study. Rereading the report more carefully, he realised that Logan had submitted his DNA specifically so that the combined DNA from he and Max could be tested against the virus Manticore had given him. Initial reports had shown that the virus was eliminated from the blood samples within six hours, even in its mutated form, and was requesting more samples to be certain.
He sat back in his chair. Logan had done it. He’d found a cure for the virus and it was just like Manticore to be twisted enough to use the captor’s DNA as a catalyst for its destruction. After all, if Alec’s mission was to retrieve Max and Logan, bringing them back to Manticore, who on earth would think to use him any further in the mix. Joshua had given Logan blood, Alec himself had even donated. But Max never had, knowing that if she even touched him she’d kill him, let alone mix her blood with his. But a mixture of his with Max’s had been enough to eliminate the virus once it began reacting in his blood. He wondered how on earth Logan had possibly come up with the idea.
If he’d seen the file three years ago, it would have just cemented his belief that they’d run off together. Finally free of the virus that had been keeping them apart, they could do anything. But now he saw it as a trap. The results were legitimate but results like that would have raised more than a few eyebrows. And it only required one loose lipped lab technician to start a whisper that would no doubt reach some very interested ears. Logan was a fool to think that anyone could be trusted with information like that.
He must have read and reread the file hundreds of times because when a message popped up on his screen, Alec realised that night had fallen already. The message was from Kellie saying that she’d had to return to the med bay but that Joshua had been more than happy to stay the night with Max. Even still, she’d asked Tosh to keep an eye on the both of them surreptitiously during the night. She’d return to Max’s apartment in the morning to run the last round of tests to see if her blood levels had returned to normal.
Alec fell asleep after that, his tired eyes closing as his head drooped down to his desk.
___________________________________________
As the next few months passed, Max seemed to be more comfortable around TC. There had been only two escape attempts in the first week before she seemed resigned to just wait for rescue. Although she was given no duties, Alec often saw her busying herself with odd jobs, though she remained stoic. Within hours of her being released from the med bay, word had spread that Max had been captured and brainwashed and the animosity that had followed her name since her disappearance seemed to dissipate. Alec almost smiled the first time he saw Gem talking with Max as they watched over the toddlers; Max clearly had had no desire to be with her but her infectious personality seemed to keep Max rooted to the spot.
Joshua spent almost every free moment with Max, sleeping in her living room and watching over her. He completed numerous paintings, each one chronicling the adventures he’d shared with her since they’d first met and he even allowed her to go into the back room of his studio where he kept his one and only painting of Annie.
Initially, Alec had noticed Max observing the Transgenics and the city with the obvious intention of storing information. He wasn’t sure when she had stopped doing it, he just knew that one day he watched her being roped into setting up a new gym across town and realised that she was no longer checking for escape routes or sizing up potential threats. Almost effortlessly, she seemed to sit back into her old life.
Except she showed no signs of remembering things.
Her personality was almost the same. She was, perhaps, a slightly softer version of her old self and there were times when she spoke with someone and he would forget all about the fact that she was learning everything for the first time. But then she would cock her head to the side or frown in confusion and everything rushed right back to him. It was one of the reasons why he kept his distance from her.
They’d had very little contact since she moved back into her old apartment. Even though he lived directly across the hall, he chose to spend most nights either on his lounge or asleep on his desk. The rare time or two that he was kicked out by a well meaning friend, he simply walked to Joshua’s practically empty space and grabbed a few hours there. Mole had made a comment or two about the amount of work he’d been putting in but Alec had brushed him off and ignored the questioning looks the others had given him. If he wanted to work round the clock, that was his prerogative. TC needed as much attention as it could get and there was an almost never ending stream of issues that cropped up from the rebuilding city. Besides, Max had a whole life to rediscover.
He just wasn’t sure if he wanted to be a part of it.
He and Max had had a ‘moment’ probably just hours before she disappeared so if she ever regained that memory, it would undoubtedly be one of the last. Alec had barely entertained the notion that he had loved her because ‘they’ had never been and he was still struggling with his own issues surrounding her disappearance. A part of him still hated her for running off with Logan, even though that was fairly unlikely now, and as much as he tried to get rid of it, the feeling still lagged. In the time he had known her, they’d barely been civil half the time and awkward friends for the other half. There had always been the feeling that ‘friends’ was never going to be their zone and he had no idea how to react with her now if they couldn’t be friends.
It was nearly a year later when a knock sounded on his door and he absently called for them to enter as he tried to finish up the latest report. Max entered a little hesitantly but when she saw him abandon his work in surprise, she took that as an invitation for discussion and closed the door behind her.
“Max, uh, hi. What can I do for you?”
She looked around his room quickly, her eyes absorbing every detail of the obviously lived in space before they settled on him. She took a step toward him.
“I was just wondering if I could talk with you for a minute. I have some questions.”
Alec rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and tried not to stumble over his words as he slipped his Manticore mask into place. “What sort of questions?”
“Just a few things about my memory. Everyone here knows me from about the time the siege started but I can’t get a handle on anything before that. I guess I wasn’t exactly communicative about all that.”
“Have you talked with Josh?”
Max nodded and took another step forward, reaching out her hand to relax it on the back of the chair opposite him. “I’ve heard all about Manticore, all the things these people went through, but if I have a past anything like that, there’d be no way I’d tell him those sorts of things. It’d... well, I don’t think I could handle seeing him like that.”
Alec stood slowly from his desk, his eyes filled with remorse. “Look, I’m sorry Max but I met you at the same time Josh did so if he doesn’t know anyth-”
Max stepped forward quickly. “I want to know! You know something, I know you do! I’ve heard a ton of stories about my past and just about all of them have you in it! This distance we have here is not how we were before - it can’t be if we started this whole thing together. Why won’t you just tell me?”
Alec sighed. “Max, you hated me. From the minute I walked into your cell at Manticore, there was nothing but hostility.”
“Then why did we start this? Why would I go into war with you if you didn’t have my back?”
He tried not to show his frustration as he clenched his fists. “WE didn’t start this Max, you did. You made the decision all by yourself and the rest of us just followed suit. I only stepped up to help because the Transhumans were the only ones that trusted you and there needed to be unity. When you left us all behind, I just simply picked up your slack.”
“I didn’t leave Alec! I was captured and brainwashed! Spent endless weeks being tortured over and over again until they decided to start invading my brain and erasing me! Intent on taking away bit by bit until I was just a mindless automaton that could complete missions they weren’t able to! I didn’t pack up and leave!”
He took a deep breath and looked down at his desk. “I know that, okay. I know. I’m sorry. But that’s not going to change the fact that I don’t know you.”
“So there was never anything between us?”
He looked up sharply and frowned. She sounded so assured and so angry that he wasn’t entirely sure what she was asking. “What do you mean?”
“You and I, Alec. Were we ever anything more than just two people who hated each other but were lumped together?”
His heart began racing as the one question he hoped she’d never ask finally popped up. It was a breaking point, everything afterward would determine the one moment before him. If he said ‘no’ she’d probably start off again from scratch, leaving everything they’d had between her in the dust. But saying ‘yes’ was impossible if he still wasn’t sure how he felt and whether or not he could overcome his own issues. He looked away as he fought for an answer before looking back at her with a frown.
“Do you remember?”
Max scoffed. “What? No! That’s why I’m asking you! Because I can’t get a simple answer!”
“But... you said...” He scrutinised her as his eidetic memory played over their conversation, giving him the answer he was looking for. “You said that you’d been tortured, stripped away bit by bit.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So?”
“Well, we don’t know what happened to you. No one does. We don’t even know who had you.”
Max shook her head. “From what I’ve heard, it was either Manticore or the Conclave. Either one would’ve undoubtedly been over the moon to get their chance to do a bit of experimenting. I was just putting two and two together but it seems that you come up with five so you tell me - what is it that I’m supposed to have remembered?”
He wanted to back down, to just trust that Max was honest with him, but they’d never really been good at backing down from each other and the opportunity to press the issue with her had been missing for so long. He carefully stepped around his desk, his long strides making quick work of the distance between them and his eyes remaining locked on hers. There was a flicker of hesitation in her eyes as he drew near but she clenched her jaw and stood her ground, as though she were unsure about whether or not he would lash out at her. He stopped just centimetres in front of her, his hazel eyes locking with her brown ones.
“I don’t know - you tell me.”
She looked uncertain suddenly, her eyes flicking back and forth between his, but it was the split second that she glanced down at his lips when he pulled her forward, pressing his lips against hers. He half expected her to shove him backward. The other half expected a moment or more of hesitancy. But when she eagerly returned his kiss, his arms held her closer and he knew.
Her body shifted against his and he pulled back, his eyes searching hers for answers.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
She shook her head honestly. “Not for certain. I didn’t know if I was remembering something or if it’d just been a dream.”
“What did you remember?”
“Fighting with you; kissing you. It’s not a whole memory, just flashes, and I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. I, I didn’t know if what I was feeling was real or not.”
“And now?”
Alec watched her smile before she leaned forward and softly kissed him.