Fiction DW- Chapter Eighteen

Title: Dream Within
Author: Restive Nature (aka Bavite)
Rated: NC-17
Disclaimer: All characters within this fiction are the property of Cameron/ Eglee. I just like to play with them.
Timeline: Six weeks after FN.
Pairing M/A
Summary: An unexpected accident causes Max to think about the future in a new way.
A/N- This chapter is dedicated to Fayth. Just because I absolutely adore her stories.



Chapter Eighteen
Deepening Emotion

"It’s not that funny, you know," Alec sighed heavily. Max had been giggling for the last few minutes. Ever since he’d told her the name of Logan’s date for the party that the freaks were throwing. At first, her eyebrows had shot up, the shock evidenced in her eyes. But then she’d laughed. Obviously she remembered Daphne. And as Alec had never met the woman, or heard of her before, he couldn’t share the joke.



"Actually it is," Max calmed down enough to say. She wiped a tear from her cheek that had trickled down; a sign of long held mirth bubbling forth. "And oh my God. I have to call Cindy." Her hands were already reaching for the cell phone in her husband’s hand. He didn’t prevent her from taking it, but just rolled his eyes.



"You know, we’re supposed to be on a date here," he whispered conspiratorially. She chuckled again, dialing her friend’s number.



"I know," she whispered back as the phone rang. "And we’ll get back to it." Her attention turned back to the phone as Cindy finally picked up.



<Hello? >



"Hey Cindy, it’s me," Max greeted quickly.



<Hey boo. What’s up? >



"You are not going to believe whom Logan is bringing to the party," she began, wondering how many hints she could drop before Cindy figured it out. She scooted closer to Alec and he pulled her back to him, cocking his head. Max tilted the phone a little so he could hear their conversation.



<Well I know it’s not you an’ it’s not Original Cindy. So all outta ideas here. >



"Oh, it’s definitely a mutual acquaintance," Max teased. "Although I’m sure you knew her a little better than I did." There was silence for a moment.



<So gotta figure we’re talkin’ ‘bout a woman here? >



"Very much so," Max giggled.



<Well damn sugah, Original Cindy don’t have no transgenic memory. There’ve been a lotta ladies in this girl’s life. >



"Oh and you assured me she was quite memorable," Max continued. She could feel Alec moving restlessly behind her and decided to take pity on both of them. There was a millisecond where she’d like to have dragged it out. It felt good to actually be in on the memories for once. But she knew how much she didn’t like not knowing and wasn’t so heartless to keep them in the dark forever. "A certain Eyes Only’s former fiancée?"



<Daphne! >



"Hey got it in one," Max sighed. She could feel Alec trying to restrain his laughter.



<Daphne is comin’ to the party? As Logan’s date? > A valid question.



"I don’t know," Max shrugged. "Maybe she’s interested in a little somethin’ somethin’ with an old friend," she suggested knowingly. She glanced up at Alec to see his eyebrow shoot up. She pulled the phone away from her mouth and silently warned him. ‘And no you can’t watch!’ He understood her perfectly, if his pout was anything to go by.



<Mmm. If that’s the case, then this girl definitely need to be rethinkin’ her wardrobe. What do ya say boo? Feel up to some shoppin’ with Original? Or do ya have your dress already? >



Max bit her lip. She mentally scanned her closet. The only fancy dress in her closet was her wedding dress. She wondered if she just hadn’t had time to get something yet. "Nope. And even if I did, why on earth would I pass up hangin’ time with my girl?"



<You know Original Cindy gonna hold that to you next time ya blow her off fo' that husband of yours. > Max crinkled her nose up, knowing she’d been caught. <Jus’ teasin’. >



"All right," Max sighed, then perked up. "How ‘bout I give you a call tomorrow and we can arrange it?"



<Sounds good, boo. > They said their good-byes and Max handed the phone back to Alec. He tucked it into his coat with a silly grin on his face.



"So, Logan actually dated a lesbian?" he chuckled. Max smiled as well and nodded. "Oh I could say something so bad right now."



"Be nice," she admonished, even though she was sure the same thoughts were running through her own mind. "It wasn’t like she told him or anything. Well, at least not until after they were engaged. Or was that after Bennett got married?"



"Oh this just gets better and better," he sighed happily. "Just one thing though. How did Daphne and Cindy manage to hook up?"



"Oh that’s simple," Max waved a hand dismissively. "See, I went with Logan to his cousin’s wedding. Daphne was also a guest. Of course, I had to go save Normal from art thieves. And at the time Cindy knew nothing about my abilities. So I left her at the reception to run interference between Logan and Daphne, who were glommed onto each other pretty much the whole time. By the end of the night, I’d saved Normal, kept a guy from killing himself, Logan got a heads up on Daphne’s gender preference, we saved a National art treasure, I beat up some bad guys and Daphne and Cindy hooked up." She paused for breath. "Oh and I stole Logan’s mother’s locket back from his Aunt Margo."



"All that in one night?" Alec teased, his arms sliding around her. "You were just a regular little superhero, weren’t you?"



"Yup," she grinned. "All that and in a Raphael Banks original, I might add," referring to the designer of the dress she’d purloined. It didn’t matter if Alec didn’t recognize the name, he got the drift. But the pensive look in his face caught her attention. "What?" she asked gently. Alec gazed down at her for a moment before turning his face back to the view of the city. He rested his cheek on her hair.



"Do you ever miss it?" he asked softly. "Those days when no one knew what you were and you could just be a regular girl?"



"Not at all," she answered quickly and to her small surprise, honestly.



"Really?" he asked skeptically. She was already shaking her head.



"Really," she insisted. "I’m so much happier with what I have now. Because I didn’t have this stuff then. And it was what I wanted for so long."



"Yeah," he scoffed quietly. "A husband and life you don’t remember." She could hear the pain in his voice as he brought the insecurity he felt over his position in her life out in the open. She reached up with a hand to cup his cheek. Alec nuzzled at the palm of her hand, but she could still feel the tension in him.



"No," she denied, her voice strong. "A family. That’s what I have now."



"Do you really though Max?" he asked seriously. "Do you feel that or are you just hanging on to it because it’s your dream and you have nothing else to hang on to right now?"



"I feel it Alec," she replied slowly, catching his drift. She knew it already, now she just had to make him understand it. Her hand toyed with the blanket underneath her. "Can I tell you something without you laughing at me?"



"Um, depends on what you tell me, I guess," he smirked, attempting to lighten the mood just a little. She tensed in his arms. "I mean if it were a joke, I’d have to laugh, right?"



"It’s not a joke," she mumbled.



"Then I won’t laugh," he assured her. She nodded, her hair rubbing against his throat.



"The blanket," she began and immediately lost him.



"Huh?"



"Just go with me on this one, okay?" She felt him acquiesce. "Okay, you wake up in the middle of the night on the couch. Maybe you fell asleep in front of the television or something. And there’s this blanket on you. It’s nice and warm, comfortable. You don’t know if your own body heat warmed it up, or if someone put it in front of a fireplace to warm it. Or maybe in a dryer. Or maybe it’s even an electric blanket. Hell, you don’t even know who put it on you. All you know is that it feels good. And all you want to do is snuggle back down in it."



"So uh what does that mean?" Alec spoke up in the silence. Max smiled even though he couldn’t see her, her hand tracing absentminded patterns over his thigh.



"It means that I woke up and there was this warm blanket surrounding me that felt so good, I wanted to do nothing more than immerse myself in it. Because it was safe and it made me feel good. And the more this blanket is around me, the more like I feel that it was made and molded just for me."



Alec chuckled slightly. "So I’m a blanket now am I?"



"No," she denied gently. "You are the moon and the stars and the sun in my sky. You are my everything. And I love you Alec McDowell." Her words almost seemed to echo in the very air around them. Max shivered against the cool air, surprised to feel that Alec had gone completely still behind her. She turned her head up to look at him, stunned by the moisture shining in his eyes. "Alec?" He bit his lower lip, the emotion shining in his face seeming to get the better of him for a moment.



"You don’t remember," he muttered after a moment. Max looked quizzically at him. "Those were our wedding vows Max. Or at least some of them."



"Oh," she murmured softly, thinking over what she’d just said, and how true they felt in her heart. "They were pretty." She felt Alec nod.



"You know," he finally spoke again, his voice soft and husky. "That makes eleven."



"Eleven what?" Max demanded quietly, unsure what he meant.



"Eleven times that you’ve said that you love me," Alec explained. Max sat up and twisted around to stare at him.



"You’ve counted?" she demanded, shocked and slightly perturbed by the idea. Alec grinned down at her.



"Well, you don’t say it a lot," he argued. "So every time you do, it’s kind of special." She blinked at him, not sure whether she was upset that she didn’t say it more or that Alec used those times as a measure of her emotion for him.



"But I show you, don’t I?" she asked, earlier fears rushing in on her again. Alec did so many things for her that she never doubted his feelings for her. And his unwillingness to believe her that she cared for him in the same way, even if she couldn’t remember their relationship was unnerving. Alec gazed down at her, his face lit in a half-smile.



"Yeah Maxie, you do," he finally murmured. "Sometimes you have a strange way of doing it, but you show me." Max sucked her lower lip in between her teeth, realizing what he was referring to. Honestly, if any other woman had hit someone so much, they’d be labeled an abuser. Thank whatever powers there were that she’d forced herself to quit doing that. Alec certainly didn’t deserve it.



"You know," she paused and took in a deep breath. "Maybe I should tell you a little more often." She was pleased to see the other corner of his mouth turn up.



"Yeah, you could do that," he joked. "I certainly wouldn’t mind."



Max moved forward, shifting to settle herself on his lap. Alec’s arms came up automatically as she cuddled in close to his chest. She tilted her head up, capturing his lips in a soft kiss. She stole the heat of his mouth with pleasure as the wind picked up slightly around them. And while she had him distracted, her hands slid downward to pull the material of his shirt from the waistband of his pants.



"Max," he rumbled warningly, stilling her hand with one of his own. She pulled back and looked at him earnestly.



"We can’t live in limbo Alec," she explained slowly. "I’ve done that before and it’ll drive you nuts. You were right before. If I don’t get my memory back, then we’ll learn to live with it. All those little things can be left behind. But regardless of the state of my memory, we need to find new things that bind us together, every day. I’d much rather be moving ahead than stuck like this for who knows how long." She didn’t realize that her hands were clenching the material of his shirt in her desperation to make him understand how she felt.



"Are you sure Maxie?" he asked at last, watching her carefully.



"Oh yes," she grinned, loosing the shirt, only to run her hands over the skin she’d managed to expose. "Very, very sure." She cocked her head to the side, her eyes entreating. "But if you still aren’t comfortable…" she trailed off. She may have coerced people before into doing her will, by various means. But there was no way she would ever force Alec into this. Through all of her many heat encounters, she’d learned the degradation of having control over something so personal taken from you. She watched as he debated with himself, until he finally made a choice.



"It’s just that it feels like I’m here," Alec began, gesturing vaguely between them. "And I know you’re back here," again with the vague gesture to the side. "And there’s no way between the two."



"Yeah there is," Max smiled even as she argued. "All you have to do is bring me here," she mimicked his motion between their bodies, her hand coming to rest on his chest, just over his heart. Alec stared down at her fingers as they slid over his shirt, slowly unbuttoning the fabric. Max held her breath, waiting for him to move. Either way she would abide by his decision, but oh, she hoped he made the right one.



Her breath left her in a whoosh as her name left his lips as if a prayer, his hands caressing her shoulders as he drew her closer. She met his lips lightly as she felt them dropping backwards. Max pressed against his chest; her legs cradled between his as Alec reclined on the unyielding blanket covered metal surface of the Needle. She felt his hands, one entwined in her hair, the other around her waist, splayed against her back. She braced her hands against the blanket, pushing up just enough to rub enticingly against his chest where his shirt had fallen open. Enough to relish the friction her sweater provided against her own skin. She sighed happily as she felt his hand steal up under her clothing, his fingers sending a shock of heat through her that no clothing could compare to.



Alec’s fingers roamed across the expanse of skin, slowly working their way up to her bra. Max found that she was quickly losing her head in her need to connect physically again with her husband. Even though it had been such a short time since their last encounter, his refusal to do this had created a barrier between them that she was eager to breach. She rocked back a little, settling on her knees above him and pulled her coat from her body before she realized then that they had chosen a rather precarious position on the Needle. She glanced down at the bundle in her hand and finally threw it towards the inner observation deck. Alec watched the progression the clothing took before glancing back at her face. His cocky smile pulled at Max’s heart. She liked him this way. When he was happy enough to smirk at her like that. Well, she’d just have to keep it up. Her sweater followed and Alec swallowed audibly, as he seemed to realize her intent.



His hand moved to still hers as it reached the zipper of her skirt, but Max adamantly pulled the zipper down. She slid the material down over her hips slowly, enjoying the darkening of his eyes. "Max," he groaned. "You do realize where we are, don’t you?" The skirt went flying over his head and then she returned her lips to his. Her hand threaded through his hair, urging him to look up into her eyes.



"I’m about to make love to my husband," she whispered. "Where are you?" She moved her other hand under his jacket, pushing it off his left shoulder. He paused for only a moment before enthusiastically helping her and soon his jacket, shirt, pants, shoes and socks had created a haphazard pile near hers.



"I’m right here with you babe," he replied, as he rolled them over. "Right where I want to be."



"Ah, me too," Max sighed as his hand moved down her thigh, caressing the quivering flesh. His lips met hers heatedly as she shifted underneath him. "Oh God, I need you Alec." He pressed his arousal against her, the barrier of their underwear all that was keeping him from her. Max pushed at the tight band of his boxers as Alec chuckled.



"It hasn’t been that long," he teased, helping her with the offending material until he was free of them.



"Oh yes it has," she argued. He opened his mouth to debate that, but all that came out was a low moan of pleasure as her hand closed around his erection. "Like that baby?" He nodded dumbly as her hand swept upwards, dragging against the silky skin. Alec pressed himself into her hand as he bent to capture her lips once more, never content to be a bystander. Max groaned softly as his lips trickled down her neck, his hand stealing to her covered mound, rubbing her through her panties. Somehow everything tonight felt sharper, deeper, as if they were in the same place, finally.



Max lifted her hips for Alec as he pulled her underwear down her legs, dragging it slowly. His mouth burned a trail down to her bra-clad breasts, suckling her through the flimsy satin as she arched into him. She pushed off the Needle and his hands moved around her back to unclasp the bra. Max shook her shoulders to loosen the garment and Alec pulled it from her, uncaringly tossing it aside. He shuddered a little as her nails scraped lightly over the tip of his penis. "Ah Maxie," he sighed into her skin as his fingers found her already wet passage. He dipped a finger into her before rubbing at her clit, smiling when she gasped and arched up again. The sweet torment continued a few minutes before Alec finally pulled himself from her grasp.



Max felt like giggling as her husband pushed her thighs further apart. Honestly, she felt giddy, just so damn good. She strained a little against him, becoming hyper aware of his skin sliding against hers. Until she realized that something was still wrong. "Uh Alec," she whimpered. His eyes shot up to her. "My shoes?" she muttered, blushing a little. The feral grin she got in return just deepened the joyous feeling stirring in her heart.



"Don’t care," he grunted, running his hand down her leg again, pulling the lithe limb around his waist. "Can’t wait."



"Well don’t blame me," she replied with a grin, "when you have heel marks all oh-!" She inhaled sharply as she felt his erection slide into her. Alec pushed himself as deeply as he could go and Max could have sworn that his wild eyes were rolling back in his head. She pulled her other leg up, pressing her calves against the back of his thighs, until his entire body pressed down on hers. She’d needed his weight upon her, a comfort unlike any other she knew, ever had known. Her hand caressed the back of his neck, fingers rubbing over his barcode and she felt his rumbling sigh of contentment.



Alec pulled his head away from her, his eyes capturing hers as he slowly withdrew. Max grinned, could already see what he had in mind as he slammed back into her. She muttered her enjoyment, her hips thrusting up to meet his. They pushed and strained against each other, never getting enough, always looking for more. His hands roamed her body as hers clutched at his arms. Alec’s mouth found her breast and Max held him to her as he flicked his tongue over her stiff nipple. "Oh Alec yes!" she half-screamed as the motion fueled the desire in her even deeper. She could feel her passage begin to shimmer around him. Alec felt it as well, his hands now digging into her hips as he pulled her into him.



Max felt her orgasm release, flooding through her entire being, her walls clamping down on her husband’s organ. She heard him groan, straining against her once, then again as he found his release as well. Max felt dizzy. "Oh I love you, I love you, I love you," she chanted happily as he buried his face in her neck. Finally, he collapsed against her, the sweat on their skin cooling them rapidly in the unfettered breeze. Alec kissed her forehead as he slipped from her and settled at her side. Thoughtfully, he reached for the edge of the blanket, bringing it over them. Max turned on her side, cuddling into him as he tucked the end underneath her.

Max was sated enough that she could have fallen asleep. Until of course Alec chuckled, the motion reverberating under her ear in his chest. "You know," he drawled, looking down at her. Max lifted her head enquiringly. "I’m only gonna count that as once." Her brow furrowed until she realized that he was referring to her earlier declaration.



"Smart ass," she mumbled. "I told you I was going to have to say it more."



"And you certainly did," he grinned, looking absurdly pleased with himself. Which she supposed he had good reason to be. They fell silent as Max pressed small kisses against his chest. His hand stroked through her hair. The breeze continued to blow, picking up just enough to catch at an untucked end of the blanket. They both shivered as the cold wind flew up their bodies. Alec sighed and quickly jerked the blanket up, leaving Max shivering for a moment as he stood up. He bent over and just as quickly, tucked the blanket back around her before lifting her up in his arms. Max pulled her arms free to wrap around his neck while he carefully negotiated the small slope. Once inside, he let her blanket clad body slide down his.



"You know," he whispered conspiratorially, glancing back at where they’d just re-consummated their relationship, "it’s a good thing hover drones don’t come up this far."



"Alec!"




Chapter Nineteen