Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize…I don't own Alec either! It's a tragedy..*sob*

Music: Stripped by Shiny Toy Guns.

Warning: Some language.

Spoilers: Takes place after 'Freak Nation'.

Some mentions of 'Sliders' and 'Supernatural'.

Max threw back the blanket and looked up at the ceiling, thoroughly frustrated. She had been trying to get some sleep for the past two hours but she couldn't get herself to calm down. She was on the edge; the duties of Terminal City resting on her shoulders. There was so much work to do! They were short of EVERYTHING, and she was barely keeping it together. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. What the hell was I thinking? These people (she refused to think of 'em as freaks) have no idea how to live on the outside. How could she have ever expected 'em to cope? God knows she had taken time to adjust to the world outside of Manticore. And having White and his merry band of loonies constantly on her ass was not helping matters at all! Plus the ordinaries outside their perimeter fence were agitated. Everyday she lived in the fear that one of her family would be killed. She couldn't bear the thought of losing someone 'cause they had all become just that, family. They looked after each other and helped each other out.

Max got out of her bed and made her way to the living room to watch tv; a habit she had picked up recently. She wasn't getting any sleep anyway, and she was never in the habit of staying in bed just for the heck of it. She stopped at the kitchen to grab a bag of 'Hersheys kisses' (a luxury in this economy) when her eyes went to the waste basket. On any other day she wouldn't have looked twice at the trash and that was probably the reason why she had lost so many things in the eight months that she was in Terminal City 'cause everyone knew that if you lost something, chances are they ended up in the trash somehow. But today was different. There was something in the trash that stood out, even in the dark, than the rest of the mundane crap that was there in it. BROWN. She had seen enough of it to be used to it, but the sight of the BROWN cotton ball which were once soaked with his bright red blood made her skin crawl.

"What the hell are you doing?" Max screeched in true fashion, barging into his place,hands on her hips.

Alec continued packing his bag without so much as a glance towards her to acknowledge her presence. Max grabbed the sweatshirt he was cramming into his bag and threw it on the bed next to it.

"I'm talking to YOU!"

"Yeah, even the dogs can hear you screaming."Alec grabbed the sweatshirt and put it in his bag. He turned around and walked to his dresser, picking out two pairs of socks.

"Don't get cute with me, Alec. What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Max grabbed his bag. She was getting ready to throw the contents out of it.

"I'm trying to help you."Alec replied calmly, slowly, like he was placating an irate child or maybe he thought she was stupid, she couldn't tell for sure. He pried her hands off of his bag and placed it on the bed, a little away from her.

"You're not helping! You're going on a suicide mission!"

"No, I'm helping you get your brother back." Alec stated, pulling out a bottle of scotch from underneath his bed.

"Alec we have no confirmation that Zack is in Nevada." Max's voice went suddenly soft. That always happened, Alec noted. Whenever she talked about her family or the residents of Terminal City or the mighty Logan her voice turned soft. Hell, even when she was screaming at Mole there was a hint of softness and concern in her voice, but never when she spoke to or about Alec. Alec to her was the scum of the world put together. Sometimes Alec though that maybe she saw him in poorer light than Ames White. He did after all screw up her chances to be with her 'not-like-that-boyfriend' Logan. And she considered him as a thorn in her side. It was partly the reason why he was doing this. He wanted to get away from her. Maybe then Max might be a little happy. She had never hid her distaste for him and maybe his absence during the course of this mission would give her some peace of mind.

Alec shook himself out of his thoughts. "Logan said so." He uncapped the bottle and took a swig of his favorite drink.

"Logan has been known to get wrong intel sometimes." Max grabbed the bottle, her hand on his, before Alec could take another swig.

"Well, I'm willing to take that chance." Alec snatched the bottle away from her.

"Well, I'm not! Alec you're gonna get yourself killed!"

"All the more reason for you to give the go ahead for this." Alec smirked. But that smirk hid his pain which he knew Max would NEVER see.

Max's eyes widened. Alec threw the bottle into his bag and zipped it up. He grabbed it and walked out of his apartment in Terminal city leaving a speechless and confused Max.

Max went over that exchange of words for days, replaying it over and over in her head. Trying to figure out how she could have changed the outcome of that conversation. Truth is, she didn't try hard enough. Sure, she didn't want Alec to go in that mission but if she had just tried to convince him to not go then this wouldn't have happened.

It had been twenty five days since Alec had left and it seemed like with every passing day Max lost a little bit of her sanity, worrying about him. Logan kept coming over, trying to comfort her, telling her that Alec would be fine which made Max just want to slap him across his face. But Logan droned on and on about how Alec was fine(can't he see that I'm at my wits end?) and about the cure. Finally Max gave Mole strict instructions to not let Logan into Terminal City and even Logan did get into Terminal City somehow she gave Mole the green light to throw the ordinary out, on his ass; she just couldn't put up with him anymore.

Mole had looked like he had been handed an endless supply of Cuban cigars.

On the twenty sixth day, Max made up her mind to go after Alec, which Dix pointed out wasn't a very good idea because Alec hadn't taken a tracking device with him. Infact he hadn't taken any kind of communication device. Alec had gone in blind and he didn't have any means to ask for help if he needed it. That bastard! Max was going to rip him a new hole. If he makes it back. What if he's dead? What if he's lying in a ditch somewhere dying? Oh god, I won't get the chance to say goodbye to him. She sent out a silent prayer to the blue lady.

They argued on and on, Max adamant on going and the rest of the command unwilling to let another leader go after their SIC when the said SIC stumbled into Command, without Zack, bloody and bruised and finally collapsing.

Max had been the first one to rush to Alec.

Max turned away from the waste basket but it didn't help much. Images of Alec's wounds were burnt into her memory and they were never going to go away. There were so many stab marks; she felt she would throw up just by thinking about them. She had cleaned every single one of them and all through out Alec had clenched onto the sheets as if she had been pouring acid over his wounds. Maybe I have been doing that. I'm so mean to him and he genuinely tries to help me.

'All the more reason for you to give the go ahead for this'. Does he really think that? When Alec woke up she was going to kick his ass and call him the biggest moron to have ever walked on this planet! I don't hate you, you fool! I could never 'cause I…I might be in love with you. Then again, what was he supposed to think? How was he to know? She didn't treat him right. From the moment they met, she was a bitch to him. Well, she would just have to change his thinking, starting now.

Max opened the door to his bedroom and stood at the doorway, looking at Alec's sleeping from. After he came back she insisted that he stay with her at her place. He had been in and out of consciousness the whole time and she wasn't going to let him out of her sight for a long time to come. Even with that amount of pain he cribbed and whined, something about 'only pussy whipped boys stay in a girl's place'.

Max walked into the room, to the bed and slipped under the covers next to Alec. She looked to her left to make sure she hadn't disturbed Alec or his bandage dressing in anyway. She placed her head on his uninjured right shoulder. She placed her hand on his heart, feeling the steady beating, reminding her that he was alive. She watched him for a few minutes but felt her eye lids grow heavy. She hadn't slept much this past one month and her body decided to catch up with her now. Right when Alec needs me the most. She tried staying awake, cursing her body all the while, but somewhere in the back of her mind she knew it was 'cause of Alec and the fact that she had him with her, right here, right now. She was finally at peace with him by her side. It was the last thought she had before she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Alec woke up with a hand on his chest, a weight on his shoulder. He raised his head to look further down and saw a leg wrapped around his right leg. Alec dropped his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes, cursing himself for landing up in someone's bed all the while thinking about how Max was going to kick his ass. His inner musings came to an abrupt end when the hand on his chest moved and started stroking his hair. It was a good feeling but he didn't feel right to take comfort from a stranger. He was going to let the girl (he knew it was girl 'cause, well, a guy wouldn't be doing that and if it was a guy he's never showing his face in public again!) know that he was awake when he heard her whisper into his ear.

"Alec? Please wake up….for me." Alec's heart shuddered to a stop. MAX? He heard her take in a shaky breath, like she was crying and when she spoke again there was no doubt in Alec's mind about that.

"Please Alec…..don't do this to me. Don't punish me like this. Please wake up…..come back to me baby." BABY? HUH? Oh crap! Did I end up in some parallel universe or something? Holy-! Maybe that tv show, what was it…right, Sliders, did get it right! Something's definitely not right. Wait! I was on a mission to get Zack back! Right! What on God's green earth am I doing here? He heard Max sniff again and felt a few tears rolling down the side of his face. Ok Alec, calm down. No need to freak out like this. There's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this. Alec slowly opened his eyes and looked at the tear stained face of Max. Even now she looked beautiful.

Max watched Alec open his eyes and she was this close to screaming with joy. Try as she might she couldn't stop the smile from breaking out on her face. She wanted to lean over and kiss him but she couldn't. If having her in his bed didn't freak him out, having her kiss him definitely would.

"Hey…" Max smiled, for what felt like the first time in a long time.

"Uh….Hi?" Alec was wary of her and utterly confused. He was still wondering if he should be looking for a timing device very similar to the one that those kids in 'Sliders' used.

"How you feeling?" Max asked, still running her hand through his hair.

"Confused…and kinda worried." Alec slightly leaned away from her touch.

The smile on Max's face fell. Alec didn't want to be around her. Why the hell would he want to? After what you've done to him? She moved a bit away from him trying to keep the pain from his rejection out off her face. "Why are you worried?"

"I'm worried about you."

"Why?" Max frowned.

"Well, firstly, you're worried about me. And secondly, you do realize that you're in bed with me, right?" Alec said.

The pain in Max's heart increased. Did he have that low of an opinion of himself? Well you pretty much drilled this idea into his head. He really is that screwed in the head. "Alec, I worry about you…..always. Why do you think I keep saving your ass all the time?"

Alec's mouth opened a little. Huh? "Huh?…." Very eloquent, Alec.

"And if you ever scare me like that again I will kick your ass from here to the North Pole." Max toned down the severity of her words by punctuating it with a smile and a kiss on his nose.

"Ok that's it! We are getting you checked out! I think you might have bumped your head." Alec started to throw the covers off of him. Max's behavior had him freaked out and completely rattled. He chanced a sniff of her hair and found that she wasn't Sam, Max's clone. And strangely that freaked him out further. If this WAS Max it meant that something was majorly wrong with her.

"I'm fine, Alec." Max pushed him back to lay down.

Alec looked at her, really looked. He found nothing but sincerity in her eyes. But the sincerity did nothing to calm his nerves. "Uh huh! And I'm Dean Winchester!" Alec retorted.

Max blushed at the mention of the fictional tv character. She only watched that show 'cause Dean Winchester reminded her of Alec, A LOT! And Alec used this knowledge to play around with her every time. It made her smile. "It's me, Alec. Now what do you feel like eating?"

The semi-confused look on Alec's face made her laugh out loud. She leaned in to kiss him on his cheek. When she pulled away Alec looked ready to have a stroke, which made Max laugh even more. She ruffled his hair and got out of bed to fix him something to eat. It warmed her heart to know that Alec cared so much for her. She always knew it in the back of her mind but it hadn't hit her until she caught Alec in her arms when he stumbled into Terminal City, all battered and bruised. She was finally going to do something right by Alec. She was going to give Alec the respect, affection and caring that he needed. That he deserved.

Alec watched her walk away with an extra sway to her hips. He looked around the room for the first time and realized that he was in Max's apartment. It didn't make sense to him but it felt so right! He heard the beating of various utensils coming from the kitchen and could only assume that Max was attempting to cook, for him. It was weird but it was definitely nice to have someone taking care of him. Scratch that, it was very nice to have Max take care of him. He didn't know why but he wanted her to see him in a different light, wanted her to know that she could trust him. And…..and he didn't know what else. He needed her and he wanted her to need him in the same manner.

He looked around her room once again and a smile broke out on his face. Maybe, just maybe, for the first time in his life he was going to get what he wanted.