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.
Chapter Thirteen
The Price of Lies
"So you want me to pretend to give you an exam, then tell you everything is okay, and tell Alec that it’s just stress?" Doc queried with a chuckle.
"Pretty much," Max confirmed with a wry grin. "Will you?"
"Well," Doc drawled, thoughtfully stroking his chin. "I do have a few more questions."
"Okay, shoot."
"What really is bothering you?" he demanded bluntly, his eyes losing all traces of his earlier merriment. Max swallowed, wondering how well she’d be able to bluff.
"There’s nothing wrong with me," she reiterated softly. "Really."
"Okay, let me rephrase that," Doc sighed, leaning forward. "What does Alec think is wrong?" That stopped her short. Doc grinned evilly. "Either you tell me, or I ask Alec."
"You don’t play fair," she finally whined. She heaved a sigh. "Okay, Alec thinks I’m being absent-minded, too quiet, not myself. That sort of stuff. But it could all be from stress. Right?" she got out in a rush.
"Could be," he agreed mildly.
"Look," Max leaned forward as well. "I already know what’s going on with me."
"So why don’t you just tell Alec?" Doc asked pointedly.
Max licked her suddenly dry lips. "Because I’m just not ready to tell him yet."
Doc watched her thoughtfully for a few minutes. Finally, he acceded. "Okay, I’ll help. But on one condition. Real tests Max." He held off her protests. "Just in case it is more than stress." Max’s jaw worked angrily as they both glanced at the noisy clock on the wall. "Tick tock. He’ll be here soon."
"All right, fine," she growled. "Real tests.
"Okay then," he snickered. "Let’s get you a gown."
*****
Max was waiting in an examination room. While she’d lost the skirmish over the tests, at least she’d won the battle over the gown. So now, she was reclining on the bed, her sleeve rolled up; wondering just what Doc had in mind to enact his cruel and unusual punishment. While she silently berated herself, someone tapped on the door.
"You better get your ass in here and get these tests done before I kick yours all the way to the Pacific!" she yelled. The door inched open and Alec stuck his head through, his eyes comically wide.
"Are these tests multiple choice or essay style?" he joked, but Max was still fuming.
"Shut up, get your ass over here and hold my hand!" she ordered. A wide grin split his face as he hurried to her side.
"There’s my girl," he chuckled as he took a seat on a nearby stool, to her right. "Just one thing. If you really don’t want to be here, why’d you take off early?" Really asking, why didn’t you wait for me?"
Max’s fingers tightened convulsively on his. "I figured that if I was actually going to do this, I better get here before I talked myself out of it."
"Good reason," he smirked. "I can see how well its working." Max stared at him for a moment, assessing him, his face, his posture, and his always all right attitude. The way his eyes kept darting around the room told her more clearly than anything that he was nervous as hell. And trying to use the distraction of her to distract himself.
She leaned back in the bed, her foot twitching rhythmically. "I swear, if he isn’t in here in sixty seconds, I’m outta here." It worked like a charm. Alec scooted closer, wrapping his free arm about her waist, and mumbled nonsensical words into her hair.
"I’m here Maxie," he crooned softly. "Just think of something else." He waited a little. "You thinking of something?" She nodded. "Tell me what it is?"
She hid a smile. "I was just wondering, if you’d told Mole about the tuxes yet?"
"Oh hell Maxie!" he bit out. "No shop talk!"
"You haven’t," she taunted gleefully, "have you?"
"No!" he growled. "And I’m not going to either, until the last possible moment."
"Oh, I don’t know about that," Max chuckled. "You might as well tell him now so he can bitch and moan and get it out of his system."
"Or tell him later, so he has no time to come up with excuses."
"There’s that too."
Doc finally chose that moment to enter the cubicle like room. "All set I see," he smiled reassuringly at the couple as he set a tray of various paraphernalia on the counter. Max’s eyes widened as she took in the unfamiliar and very painful looking tools. Of course, as a Manticore alumnus, she could handle pain. Didn’t mean she had to like it of course. "Okay, let’s get started," Doc chirped as Max glared at him. He just held the smile, his eyes telling her that she had brought this all on herself. He removed a needle, syringe and several vials from the tray and approached. "First up, I need a blood sample."
"How much do you need?" Max growled as she counted the vials.
"Well, I won’t know that until I have it all, will I?" Doc snorted. Max sat up, trying to push Alec aside.
"Like hell!" she growled. Alec sighed, but wouldn’t release his hold around her waist. His thumb moved repetitively over the tender skin of her inner elbow and Max realized that he was expecting this, and so was Doc, from the look he was giving her. And Max suddenly tapped into the true nervousness that she was feeling. She had been able to be blasé about this, but actually going through with it was another matter. And true, she had just cause to not like hospitals and tests. Before, it had meant exposure, people finding out about her virus and extreme genetic structure. But she was still feeling twinges of apprehension, even with Doc and Alec here. Two people that she trusted. She let her head slink down to Alec’s chest, taking comfort. The mind forgot, but the memory was embedded in her skin and she was reacting accordingly.
"I really don’t need a lot Max," Doc tried to reassure her. She inhaled deeply and nodded from her current position. She held her arm out, childishly squeezing her eyes shut.
"Come on sweetie," Alec smiled gently, "it won’t be so bad. One prick and it’ll all be over."
"That’s what I thought about losing my virginity," Max mumbled. "Turns out it was a hell of a bigger deal than that." She grinned as both men laughed. But she began to cringe when the laughter died down and her muscles tensed up accordingly.
"Relax," Doc ordered softly. Max groaned. As if that would work. She glanced up at her husband.
"Distract me?"
"Gladly," he grinned. As Doc held the proffered arm, Alec nudged her other arm around his waist and tilted her head up. Max gladly met his lips in a slow, languorous kiss. He rubbed his lips back and forth across hers, letting the moist skin tickle over hers. Max sighed again as her lips parted and his tongue slipped into her mouth. Carefully, taking his time, he explored the depths of her, his tongue stroking hers until she began to sway more heavily into him, slightly lightheaded. Alec noticed and broke off the kiss, moving to pepper little kisses along her jaw. Max’s eye fluttered shut as she continued to lose herself in him.
"Ahem!" Alec jumped back at the startling noise of Doc loudly clearing his throat. He smirked at them, holding up two full vials of blood. Max shot a look at her arm, where a bandage now resided in the crook of her arm. She blushed a little, finding it only a little hard to believe that she hadn’t felt a thing. "Okay,"’ Doc continued when he had both their attention. "I’ll take these down to my lab and have a look see. Do you want to wait, or should I call you?"
"How long will it take?" Alec asked.
"Eh, forty-five minutes, maybe," Doc shrugged.
"That fast?" Max queried, puzzled. It seemed to her that in the past, these things took so much longer. Doc nodded.
"Well, seeing that you’re my only patient scheduled today, it’s not like I have a lot to distract me from this," he chuckled. He tilted his head, waiting for their answer.
"We’ll go get some breakfast and come back," Alec decided. Doc nodded again and ambled off to play with his machines. Max was hurriedly rolling down her sleeve, in case he came back with more wicked ideas in mind.
"Let’s go!" she barked at him, already at the door while he was just rising from his stool.
*****
After a breakfast of warm cinnamon rolls and coffee, Max and Alec headed back to the infirmary. They didn’t have long to wait before Doc called them into his office. He gestured to the seats before his desk and they sat as he moved around the office, gathering some things up. He returned to the desk and perched on it, slightly off center so that he could face both of them at once.
"So?" Alec asked, his voice breathy with hesitation. Doc glanced down at the folder in his hands, then shut it and tossed it behind him. It landed with a soft slap on the metal desk. He seemed a little uncomfortable, as he constantly shifted about.
"Max is perfectly fine," Doc shrugged. "A little low on iron, but the majority of the women in the world are. I checked thoroughly and there’s no resurgence of any of the viruses and bacteria she was infected with last year."
"So what does this all mean?" Alec demanded.
"It means, that just like every other person on earth, Max’s body is fluctuating naturally," Doc sighed. "She’s really busy and probably letting herself get a little run down." He paused and gave a stern glare in her direction, but she stayed quiet. "I would suggest that you, young lady, get as much rest as you can. I know you don’t sleep, but just rest in general. Eat as much fresh green stuff as you can and," he picked up one of the pieces of paper littering his desk and thrust it at her, "start taking this. It’s a multi-vitamin supplement. They carry them at health food stores. One a day should be fine."
"And this’ll help how?" Alec asked softly. Doc laughed.
"You’re a lucky man Alec," he shook his head wonderingly. "Most women, when their hormone levels dip really low or skyrocket, they tend to get bitchy, aggressive and violent." He got up and moved around the desk, putting himself a safer range from the woman before he continued. "And for Max, who already is bitchy, aggressive and violent, she instead gets quiet." Alec glanced between the two of them, his amusement tugging at his lips while he tried not to laugh along with Doc and appease his rapidly aggressing wife.
"Okay," Alec chuckled. "I can live with that. Any idea why this is happening now though?"
"Stress," Doc answered succinctly.
"Okay!" Max finally felt that it was enough. Alec had his answers; Doc had come through. She ran the prescription-like note through her fingers and stood up. "I’m glad that’s taken care of." She waited for Alec to rise and shake the other man’s hand, a thank you gesture. Doc shook his hand and quickly grabbed up a sealed manila envelope. He handed it to Max as well.
"Just some information I downloaded for you, if you feel like reading up yourself," Doc told her, holding her eyes and conveying much more with his expressive face. Max glanced down at the envelope, then back at Doc. She held her hand out and he set it in her palm. ‘Tell him,’ he mouthed at her. ‘I will, later,’ she mouthed back. Doc nodded and she turned, package in hand to join her husband at the door.
Alec’s face was impassive as he walked her back to the apartment. Max chattered on nervously about how soon someone could go and lay in a supply of the vitamins. And how maybe it would be a good idea for TC to keep some on hand, as there were probably other women and even some men who might benefit from them. Not that they were too much of a worry. Their transgenic bodies would keep them in fairly top health and rest and proper food would take care of what their genetics didn’t. But it still wouldn’t hurt for extreme cases, such as herself. But still, Alec said not one word.
Max entered the apartment, throwing the envelope onto the kitchen counter. She removed her jacket and carried it into the bedroom to hang up. When she returned, Alec was standing at the counter, running the envelope through his fingers, much as she had done earlier with her prescription. She stopped in mid stride; finally admitting to herself that he still wasn’t completely convinced that she was okay. His whole stance screamed tension.
"Alec?" she asked softly. He dropped the package and braced his hands against the edge of the counter. He looked straight at her, his eyes hard.
"Why are you lying to me?" he demanded in a low voice. Her breath caught in her throat.
"I’m not lying, Alec," she protested faintly.
"Yes you are," he persisted, his fingers going shockingly white as his grip tightened even more. "Don’t bother to deny it. I may not be an expert at reading lips, but I still got the message from Doc!" he exploded. Max let her breath loose in a rush, as her ramrod straight back slackened and she wrapped her arms around her waist. She couldn’t meet his eyes. She was lying and he knew it. "You know Max, it was bad enough that you could tell Josh and not me. But I could live with that. He’s one of your best friends and sometimes you need a friend to talk to and not a husband. I didn’t like it, but I could live with it." Max glanced up, hope lighting her eyes. But it died as her gaze landed on his clenched fists. "But now, you’ve got Doc lying for you. Who else knows Max? Who else can’t I trust?"
"Alec," she protested, slightly shocked that her reticence had pushed him this far. But she should have known better. Mistrust only engendered more mistrust. But still, she had to try. "It’s not like that."
"Then tell me how its like!" he yelled, pushing back from the counter. Max stood there, in the center of the room, fingers twitching into her side as she remembered over and over the look on his face that night. The anger directed at her. She didn’t want that. "Max?" he demanded of her, but she couldn’t say a word. She couldn’t make him madder than he was. She couldn’t take the chance. Finally he sighed and stormed past her. The bedroom door slammed shut and Max shakily let herself loose and stumbled over to the couch. She sank into it, her head falling into her hands. She stayed like that for long minutes, until the sound of more things slamming around in the bedroom caught her attention.
Apprehensively, she rose and approached the door, scared of what she’d find. She pushed the door open and her heart nearly stopped beating. Alec was moving back and forth between the bed and the dresser. Packing. "What are you doing?" she cried out reflexively. He barely paused.
"I’m leaving."
"Why?" she cried, tears pooling in her eyes. His jaw was tense and he wouldn’t look at her. He moved to the closet, going out of his way to avoid her. "Alec, don’t do this."
"You won’t tell me what’s going on," he told her, his voice muffled. He paused, giving her yet another chance to come clean, but she was so shocked by his actions that she didn’t recognize it. He sighed heavily. "You won’t. So I can’t stay here." He came out of the closet, his heavy coat in his hands. He kicked the door shut, the slam echoing in the silent room.
"Where are you going to go?" she asked softly, still unable to believe he was actually leaving her.
"I’ll find somewhere," he shrugged. "If I have to, I’ll sleep in my office." He grabbed up the duffel bag he’d filled and once again avoiding her, moved out of the bedroom. She turned on her heel and hurried after him. She grabbed his arm just as he opened the front door.
"Alec don’t!" she protested again. "Stop!"
He turned back to face her, "no Max, you stop! I’ve put up with a lot in the past. But I won’t anymore. I shouldn’t have to." She could see his eyes, pleading with her to just tell him, but the words wouldn’t come. With an angry snort, he shook her hand off his arm and disappeared out the door. Max stepped after him into the hallway.
"Alec, please don’t go," she cried out to his back. But he kept going. "Please! I just…. I just…" he turned around the corner, never looking back. "I just… don’t remember," she finally got out. But it was too late. She collapsed against the doorframe, slowly sliding to the ground as she cried once more, "I don’t remember you."
Chapter Fourteen
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