Author: Restive Nature (aka Bavite)
Rated: up to NC-17
Disclaimer: All characters within this fiction are the property of Cameron/ Eglee. I just like to play with them.
Timeline: Sequel to Dream Within. Fiction starts about six weeks after FN.
Pairing M/A
Summary: Dreams don’t often come true for Manticore-bred soldiers. So when the chance comes along for Alec, he’s not quite sure how to take it.
Chapter Three
Look Both Ways
When Alec woke the next morning, his mind was strangely still. Usually he woke with thoughts already scurrying around, filled with notations of what needed to be done. Both for TC and for himself. Ways of how to handle the inevitable situations between transgenic and transhumans that were bound to come up. But this morning, he felt content. With a wry smile, he stretched his body out to the maximum, rolling his eyes when he heard the bones in his feet crackling just slightly.
He wiggled his toes, enjoying the looseness in his muscles that finally a full eight hours of sleep had provided. With a small sigh, as he realized that no matter how much he might want to, he couldn’t remain in bed much longer, he sat up and pushed the covers aside. He stood and snagged the pair of jeans that at some point had been draped across the foot of his bed. He pulled them on, not bothering to snap them shut. With a small yawn and unconscious scratching at his right shoulder, he ambled from his bedroom, wondering if he had any coffee left.
Not that what he had was any good. Most mornings it was comparable with sludge. Which was not the coffee’s fault. It was a grade A coffee. But Terminal City’s water supply was so full of minerals and various other detriments that he really didn’t want to think of so early, that after the first cup, there was kind of a slickness to it. Usually the first cup was good, but after that, it certainly wasn’t anything to write home about.
It was halfway through the first pot percolating, as Alec mused on why he didn’t just brew one cup at a time to prevent the sludginess, that he remembered Max. His eyes widened and he rubbed at the sensitive spot just between and slightly above his eyes. A groan escaped his mouth as he realized that she, unlike him, probably hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep. In fact, she rarely slept. So he could just imagine how frustrated she was at this point of the morning.
True, he had brought into her room every single book and distraction he could find. Anything to prevent her from getting up and ignoring Dr. Carr’s orders to remain in bed a few days. And before he’d left for the evening, he’d extracted another promise that she wouldn’t be foolish and compromise her health. Not that she’d been overeager to go out and do something foolish like take on the Sector Cops lining the perimeter all by herself. In fact, she was being unusually cautious after her accident. But that was well before potential boredom could have set in. He was willing to bet that if she wasn’t climbing the walls by this point, she soon would be.
But the aroma of the coffee was too great an allure. ‘I can have one cup,’ Alec promised himself. ‘Just a quick cup and then I’ll go and check on her.’ But he was only fooling himself. While the coffee finished brewing, he hurried to find a halfway decently clean shirt and socks. As he was tying up his sneakers, he heard the percolator give off its final hiss. Rummaging through his cupboard, he withdrew two chipped and slightly stained mugs. He poured and slid the carafe back into its slot. Picking up both mugs, he took an appreciative sip from one before heading down the short distance that separated their apartments.
He was barely five feet from her door, when he heard the muffled grunts and a vehement curse under her breath. Judging from the noise, Alec judged her to be in her kitchen. Which was an odd occurrence. Not his knowing where she was in the apartment. He knew the layout of her apartment well enough to be able to pinpoint the noise to within a few feet. No, what was unusual was that Max was using her kitchen. She rarely, if ever cooked. And like him, didn’t enjoy the coffee that was produced by their complexes share of the water run-off.
Usually Max hightailed it over to the commissary for her morning coffee. The only thing that he could think of was that she was trying to keep her promise that she’d stay put, manipulating the vagueness of the promise to make it seem as if her entire apartment was ‘right here’, and not her bed as Alec had meant. He shook his head. There was no point standing in the hallway making up excuses for her. He’d hear them as soon as he walked in. Shifting his mug from his right hand to join Max’s in his left, he reached for the doorknob. The door swung easily open as another small crash resounded through the relatively small room.
“Am I going to have to find a length of rope and tie you to the bed?” he demanded loudly, with a teasing grin on his face as he rounded the corner into the kitchen. Only to be completely taken aback by the sight that awaited him.
“Well you could, but I always heard you were a handcuffs kind of guy,” the female teased back, recovering from his unexpected entrance quickly.
Alec gasped out some air, sloshing a tiny bit of the warm coffee over the back of his hand. “Gem!” he exclaimed, then glanced around the room, as if ascertaining that he was in the correct apartment. “What are you doing here?” His mouth was still slightly agape. Of all the things he’d been expecting of Max, this was certainly nowhere near being on his list.
To her credit, Gem seemed completely relaxed to be in another woman’s apartment at seven in the morning. She took the two coffee mugs from his hand and set them on the counter, before turning back to the stove. Alec moved to see what she was doing and understood immediately where the crash had come from. Apparently Gem was so comfortable, she was cooking, or at least attempting to salvage some eggs. “It was the weirdest thing,” she muttered with a half shrug as she stirred the food. She glanced back at Alec, merriment twinkling in her eyes. “Max called me about an hour ago and asked me if the donuts were ready.”
“Donuts?” Alec repeated. He would have said more, but he was stuck on that one thing. His mouth hung open as he tried to think his way through where Max’s mind was coming from.
Gem laughed. “Yeah, that was about my reaction too. Then she apologized really quickly, for waking me up.”
“She did?” he asked softly. It was enough that her behavior the day before had unbalanced most everybody they’d run into. It was worrisome to a degree if it were to continue.
“No, actually she didn’t,” Gem continued in reply. Alec snapped his attention back to the other woman. Something was very wrong here since firstly Max hadn’t been making much sense the last few days, and now the epidemic was spreading to Gem. “Wake me up,” she stressed with a shake of her head. With a wry grin, she plucked Alec’s mug off the counter and pressed it into his hand. “Drink,” she commanded. “You obviously need to wake up.”
“Yeah, that’s obviously it,” Alec grunted. He drank slowly, so as not to burn his tongue and to give himself a moment to recover. He decided that the easiest thing would be to start over and ease into a normal conversation with the woman. “So Max called you this morning, asked about donuts and you decided to come over?” he queried.
“That’s pretty much it,” Gem agreed, watching the eggs carefully.
“But donuts?” he smirked. Gem glanced over her shoulder at him, unable to resist smiling back.
“Yeah, I’m not too clear on that part of it,” she sighed. “After Max apologized and hung up, I wondered if she was okay. So I thought I’d come over and check on her.”
“And she was okay?” Alec was mildly surprised that Gem had been that concerned about a woman she barely knew. Naturally the incident at Jam Pony wasn’t really the opportune time to stage a get to know ya conversation and afterwards, Gem’s time had been taken up with caring for her newborn daughter. Not that Max had been clambering after the woman for some female bonding.
“She was fine,” Gem grinned. “Apparently she’d just had a weird dream and mistakenly called me.”
“Humph,” Alec grunted. “There’s a lot of that going on lately.” He saw the questioning gleam in the young mother’s eyes and spoke again hurriedly to head that off before it began. “So where’s Angie?” he asked, referring to the infant that was almost religiously attached to the X-5 mother.
“In the bedroom with Max,” Gem answered, though she gave him a look that clearly told him that she wasn’t fooled by his attempts at derailment. “She fell back asleep after we got here. I offered to make Max breakfast and she’s keeping an eye on her for me.”
“Oh, really?” Alec was slightly stunned. He’d never imagined that Max would be the type to care for an infant. Older kids, yeah, he could see that. Especially after watching her with Bugler, the X-8 of the pack of Manticore kids they’d rescued from the clutches of White.
“Of course, I’m right here if either of them needs me,” Gem smiled. “It’s no big deal Alec,” she tried to reassure him.
“I didn’t mean anything,” he shrugged apologetically. Certainly he hadn’t meant for his musing to imply that Gem was being careless with her child. Or that Max was untrustworthy around kids. In fact, she seemed to go out of her way to take care of them. Which, while it was an admirable habit, also seemed to cause her the most trouble. “I’m just uh, surprised that Max volunteered.”
“I kind of was too,” Gem offered quietly. “But hey, a break is a break,” she laughed softly. “Even if it is just for fifteen minutes.” She began to stir more quickly as the eggs were setting. Just then, both noticed the slightly burnt smell and small stream of smoke rising from the appliance on the counter. Gem tried to reach for the toast that was apparently burning, but her sleeve caught at the pan. She recovered quickly, catching the frying pan before it could fall. Alec moved forward to take care of the toast. It certainly wouldn’t do to burn down Max’s apartment. And even though he wasn’t the instigator of this little scheme, he was sure that Max would no doubt find some way of blaming him.
Unfortunately, the noise they created in the process woke up the sleeping infant. Gem cringed slightly as she heard the piercing shriek ring through the apartment. She continued to stir furiously as she turned her back to Alec. He quickly rummaged through Max’s mostly bare cupboards, finding a plate. He set it near the stove and laid the slightly crisp pieces of toast on it. Angie’s cries continued, but had softened somewhat to a pitiful whimper.
“Alec could you go get her for me please, while I finish these?” Gem asked hurriedly. Alec was about to offer to take over the eggs. Babies were less his forte than the X-5 females that bore them. He was about to make a quip to that effect, but Gem glanced over her shoulder to give him a pleading look. “Please?”
Alec could have sworn she was blushing. Wondering why on earth she would be embarrassed, he shrugged genially and turned towards the room the noise was emanating from. Figuring that it wouldn’t be too difficult to just carry the kid out, he nonetheless knocked at the closed door. Surely Max wouldn’t be able to sleep through that racket. And to his unsurprise, she wasn’t. What did take him aback though, was that she was cradling the baby against her shoulder, sitting up in the bed, rubbing a soothing hand over the infant.
“Shh sweetie,” she calmed. “Mama will be here soon.”
Alec was stunned by the sweet sentimentality of the picture the two of them made. Somehow, Max looked completely natural and at ease with the infant in her arms. There was a soft, wistful smile on her face, even as Angie had caught some of her hair in her tiny fist and was yanking at it as she squirmed. Unknowingly, a similar smile began to grace his face. It was a rare and beautiful sight that he had been given the privilege to see.
“Hey Alec,” Max greeted after a moment. She was still bouncing Angie in her arms, unable to provide what the infant wanted. “I thought I heard your dulcet tones earlier.”
Alec waited a moment, then entered her bedroom. “Yup, that was me. I was bringing you coffee,” he smirked at the quick grimace on her face that disappeared quickly. “But then I got roped into the saving the toast plan of action.”
“Uh huh,” Max muttered, her attention divided between him and the infant. Well, centered more on the baby, with a peripheral of him. Alec was mildly startled to discover that he was slightly jealous of the attention Angie was receiving over him. “Pass me the diaper bag, would you?” Alec’s eyes widened as Max eased Angie away from her slightly. Either one or both of them were sweaty, or Angie had decided being hungry wasn’t enough. Max’s t-shirt was clinging to her side, obviously moist, delineating her curves. Alec shook his head before she could notice and consequently scold him. Glancing down, he caught sight of an old duffel bag which didn’t look familiar. Taking a chance, he hefted it onto the bed, sliding it towards Max. She said nothing as she reached for it, but Angie decided to squirm again.
“Need a hand?” Alec asked teasingly. Max returned his grin and nodded.
“Can you get out a diaper and another sleeper?” she asked quickly. Alec opened his mouth to ask what a sleeper was, but noticed that Max had laid Angie down and was divesting her of the one piece outfit the baby girl was wearing. He found the requested items on top and laid them on the bed in front of him before settling the bag back on the floor.
“Here we go,” Max murmured as she finally eased the clothing off, along with an old set of plastic underpants. Angie, now free of the clinging wetness of her clothing settled down a little more, having taken the hunger matter into her own chubby hands, sucking at her fingers. She kicked idly while Max tickled at her knee.
“Have you ever changed a diaper before, Max?” Alec scoffed. He was almost holding his breath, not from the unique smell of baby business, but from the puzzlement as he watched her assured manner of dealing with the infant.
“Can’t say that I have,” she chuckled. “But it’s not rocket science.”
“I’m not too sure of that,” he retorted, picking up and turning the cloth diaper about as he tried to figure out what went where.”
“Don’t unfold that,” Max warned harshly and Alec glanced up guiltily. How had she known that that was exactly what he’d been about to do? “Gem has the diapers folded ahead of time so that Angie doesn’t have an accident while waiting for someone to get it right,” she explained quickly. Alec wondered when the women had time to share that little tidbit. “Pass it here.” Wordlessly, he handed over the scrap of soft cotton.
It was an interesting process to watch. Max was certainly adept enough at unpinning the old diaper. It was cute the way she caught Angie’s legs and hoisted her bottom end into the air. Alec winced slightly for the baby, but Angie made nary a protest, indicating that it was a process the baby was used to. Max moved the diaper aside and then held her full hand out towards him.
“What?” he demanded, knowing full well what she wanted.
“There should be a bag to put the soiled ones in,” she instructed, a wicked glint in her eyes.
“Oh no,” he shook his head. “I’m not touching that thing.”
“Take it Alec,” she muttered simply,” or I’ll throw it at your head.”
With a slight gagging noise, Alec bent down to retrieve a plastic bag from the duffel. As gingerly as he could, he held it open for Max to deposit the soiled laundry in.
“You know, you are such a wimp,” Max teased.
“Just because I don’t enjoy the smells that one most naturally associates with the reminiscent scents of the underground, namely the sewers, does not mean I’m a wimp,” Alec protested eloquently. Max just smirked at him. She glanced down at Angie.
“He’s a wimp,” she cooed. Alec could have sworn that Angie smiled back in that conspiratorial manner that females shared. After reaching into the duffel bag for a wet cloth, the process went quickly. And just as Max was snapping up a slightly threadbare sleeping outfit almost identical to the one Angie had worn before, the door opened.
“Oh Max,” Gem protested mildly, having caught on quickly as to what was going on, “you didn’t have to do that.”
“It’s okay,” Max smiled generously as she hoisted Angie up again. “I didn’t see the point in making her suffer.” The baby, now that she was upright and not being fed, began to cry again. Without a word, Max held the child out to her mother.
Gem shoved the tray towards Alec, who caught it before it fell. He glanced around for a place to set it and noticed Max nodding for him to set it on her dresser. He did and was about to protest as she climbed out of bed. But she held her hands up and wiggled them.
“We’re gonna go wash our hands,” she explained to Gem who glanced up from her daughter. Alec swore that something silent and necessary passed through the women. Gem just nodded, but he noticed her lower lip quiver just a moment.
“Okay,” Gem nodded. And then so quietly, he almost didn’t catch it, “thanks.”
Deciding that washing her hands was not monumental, and since she’d just been changing a messy kid, Alec didn’t protest. But he did wonder at the amount of time it took her to do it. It seemed as if she were determined to scour every inch of skin on her hands, all the way up to her elbows.
“If I didn’t know better Max,” he drawled, “I’d swear you were preparing for surgery.”
“Oh you’re a laugh a minute Alec,” Max smiled at his reflection in the bathroom mirror as she rinsed off. Alec handed her the towel and as she dried, she stepped back to offer the sink to him. Alec didn’t give the matter much thought as he stepped forward for his turn. “For your information,” she continued as she laid the towel beside the sink, “we’re giving Gem a minute.”
“And why are we doing that?” he asked, glancing now at her reflection. Max rolled her eyes, then her head cocked to the side.
“I take it that Manticore never offered much more than a basic sex ed. course?” she asked, as delicately as she could. Alec’s eyes widened. How on earth did they make the jump from politeness to sex? He shook his head, indicating no. Max nodded broodingly.
“Just basically what went where, who had what and why,” he shrugged, glancing away.
“What I meant was that they probably had no reason to get into the stuff about when women had babies,” Max steered the conversation to where she wanted it to be. “After all, they had surrogates for that. And any soldiers having a kid,” she paused and Alec got the distinct impression that something else was on her mind then. “Well, they wouldn’t really have had to deal with taking care of a baby.” He nodded, indicating his agreement.
“So what does that have to do with this?” he demanded softly, drying off his hands. He turned to face her, noting that she looked slightly uncomfortable to be sharing this with him, but it was not enough to deter her.
“You noticed that Gem had changed her shirt?” she questioned. Again, her leaps in conversation had no sense of logic to him, but he realized that she would get to the point, bringing it together for him. So he simply nodded again. “Well, she heard Angie crying. And for nursing mothers, it’s a natural reaction to start making milk to feed the kid.”
Alec lifted a single eyebrow, amused as he made the connection quickly. “You mean she was…?”
“Yeah,” Max grinned. “And it probably embarrassed her,” she concluded. Alec thought on that a moment.
“Why would it?” he asked. “It’s a natural reaction.”
“Because as soldiers,” Max began softly, “you guys, we all were never given any privacy. Such a thing didn’t exist.” Alec realized that he was leaning forward, intrigued now despite himself. It wasn’t often that they compared their lives within Manticore. They were so extreme from each other because of the escape Max’s unit had made. “And now that Gem is out in the real world, she’s learning that there are different rules. Things are happening to her for the first time ever, and no one is really there for her to give her the expected parameters of what’s going on.” She paused and glanced up at him, from under lowered lashes.
“Go on,” he encouraged quietly. She sucked her lower lip inv for a moment.
“She doesn’t have a unit leader or commander, or an officer or even Renfro to give her direction anymore,” Max murmured slowly. “And while I don’t think many of them are complaining, no one else does either. When I let them out, I kind of threw them to the wind. So what we have here is a people trying to establish what is right now and acceptable now, to what had been acceptable before.”
“They’ve got a different sense of freedom now,” Alec added, starting to understand. He hadn’t given too much thought to how the others were building their lives. He himself had taken to certain parts of life naturally, while other parts of the outside world had baffled him.
“And it’s not only the outside world,” Max added. “It’s also what they think and feel inside.”
“So what do we do about it?” Alec asked. Max gave him another contemplative look.”
“The best we can,” she laughed suddenly, her face taking on impish proportions. Alec smiled back reflexively. Max moved out of the bathroom. “Now, I’m hungry.”
“Oh by all means,” Alec chuckled as he followed after her. “Let’s go stuff your face.” He saw Max shaking her head ahead of him. When he followed her back into her room, he saw that Gem had finally taken matters with Angie in her own hand. The contented sounds of the child nursing from underneath a light blanket that covered the child and part of the woman, echoed through the room. Alec noticed that just as Max predicted, Gem looked a little uncomfortable, and for the life of him, he couldn’t ever remember seeing her nursing Angie in public. Perhaps there was more to what Max had said than he’d given her credit for.
He picked up the tray from her dresser and brought it over to her. He waited a moment until she was comfortably under the covers, then leaned down to place it across her lap. “When the hell did you become so sensitive to others?”
“I always have been Alec,” she answered back quietly. Alec was startled to realize that he’d said the last thought out loud. He stared at her as she regarded him evenly. “Just remember though, it’s a two way street.”
Chapter Four
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