Fiction Anything To Zipper- Jealous

Series Title: The Alphabet Series

Chapter Title: Jealous

Author: Restive Nature

Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel. This show belongs to Fox and Cameron/ Eglee. No infringement is intended and this fiction is for reading pleasure only.

Rating: PG-15 (for language)

Genre: Dark Angel Crossover Surprise

Type: Schmoopy! Angst!

Pairing: Max/ ?

Summary: What he wouldn't give to have her look that way at him...

Spoilers/ Time line: Post "Freak Nation"

Feedback: Always welcome.

Distribution: Ask first, please.

A/N: I was reading Nickeldime's prompt response's and others, while on my hiatus and really, darn it, just couldn't resist putting in my 52 cents... you know, 2 cents for every story...

A/N2: This episode of the Alphabet series has been a long time coming. The preview to it has been up at my site for well... years. Unfortunately, just as I was most enjoying it, the darn thing went ahead and developed a minor plot. But I hope it's enjoyable all the same.

Jealous

“You know, once, just once, I would really like for her to take that stick she’s got shoved so far up her-!” Alec bit the words off, fully realizing that his friend and former comrade in arms, Biggs was watching him rant, his eyes alight with amusement.

“Max ridin’ your ass again?” Biggs asked, though a thorough knowledge and assessment of his own from watching the bickering duo made the question essentially unnecessary. But still, it could be said, or more, understated and often. After all it was a multi-daily occurrence.

“I wish,” Alec snorted, his eyes darting around, searching out his enemies position. Granted, they were only bumming around Jam Pony, not in hostile territory. But lately even work was feeling that way. But Alec was prudent enough not to talk too loudly about this particular situation unless they were in the clear. But he should have known they were as Biggs had continued the conversation. And he had already learned the hard way that that woman had eyes and ears everywhere, friendly and not so much so. Alec didn’t know exactly who all reported to her, but everything seemed to eventually make its way to Maxie’s ears. He knew that Cindy and Sketchy were some of the informers and since they were her friends, that was understandable. Alec at first had thought that Sketchy would have showed some male solidarity, but he quickly learned that if you slipped the lanky deliverer some beer or pot then the boy spilled absolutely everything.

“Well, at least you know she’s paying attention to you,” Biggs chuckled. He watched, his amusement growing as his best friend slammed a clenched fist into the nearest locker. He was beginning to think that there was a hell of a lot more to the situation than he’d originally suspected. Several days of quiet observation and introspection had led to that semi conclusion. There was just no way 494 would let himself get so spun about a girl unless he was emotionally involved in some way. All that Biggs was concentrating on now was deciding what Alec’s interest was. There was of course their shared connection of pasts at Manticore. 493 must have been a huge factor, though Biggs had wisely shied away from that subject with both of them. He had enough issues with his clone and that kid had been one that had stuck around, unlike Max and the other 09er’s.

But there was something that had drawn Alec to Seattle and kept him there. And all Biggs could see was that it was Max. There were overtones of a slightly antagonistic friendship. The pair of them had each others backs when it came down to brass tacks, though both paid lip service to their unique quirks that made them who they were. Max being bitchy and Alec being a smart ass. And then there were the sexual attractiveness factors. Both of them, genetically engineered, were gorgeous and they both knew it, exploiting it when needed, ignoring it when it was inconvenient.

But there was one other factor that threw a monkey wrench into the powder keg. And that was Max’s attachment to that Ordinary, Logan Cale. But from what Biggs had gathered they were on the outs at the moment. Something about Max not wanting to kill the guy with the retrovirus Manticore had oh so kindly gifted her with before going down in flames. That, to Biggs, was just the limit. Nice way to say 'I love you'. But it was a removable obstacle in more ways than one. The man, not the virus.

“It’s the kind of attention I’d happily do without,” Alec grimaced as he looked over the slight scrape on his knuckles. The sting was a welcome distraction from the bruise on his shoulder that was the latest victim of Max’s flying fists. Biggs wondered if it was time to let his silent observations be known. He debated for all of .25 seconds before deciding that he’d test the waters a little more. He could always pull back, regroup and come at this from another direction if need be.

“Oh you know you want her,” Biggs chuckled quietly. He wanted to guffaw at the look of incredulity that Alec speared him with. “You’ve been talking about her nonstop for the past two days. ‘Max this, Max that, can you believe what Max said, wah wah wah’!”

“Shut up asshole,” Alec growled, his eyebrows burrowing deeply towards his eyes as he frowned at the absurd suggestion. “All I want from Max is for her to get the hell off my case.”

“Right,” Biggs drawled, leaning his shoulder against one of the pillars that supported the ceiling. “So if she walked up to you right here and now and offered to get busy, you’d just brush her off? Shoo her away?”

“Oh fuck that,” Alec grunted, giving Biggs a WTF look. “Yeah I’d do her. What straight, red blooded male wouldn’t? You know, as long as I could gag her. Don’t need a constant stream of all my shortcomings then, you know?” The two males laughed at the image Alec was creating. They’d had enough of people telling they were worthless by the time they were two. “But want her? Even I am not that screwed in the head, and believe me my friend, you know better than anyone…”

“Yeah, Biggs agreed quickly, not wanting to stray off the path either. “So you’re saying…” he left off suggestively, not sure what he exactly meant, deciding to let Alec take it from there.

“I’m just saying that Max needs to loosen up,” Alec shrugged one shoulder. “A good long hard fuck would probably turn the trick, but something at least.” He eyed the other male speculatively and a sudden suspicion bloomed violently in his mind. “Oh shit? You’re not-!”

“Me!” Biggs squawked out, his hands coming up defensively. He shook his head quickly. “Oh no man. Not interested. Hell no! I mean, crap, if the indomitable 494 is quailing under the task, there’s no way in hell that I’d contemplate it.”

“Ah,” Alec breathed a quick sigh of relief. For his friends sake, of course. Max just had too much baggage for anyone to take on.

“But still,” Biggs persisted. “We’re agreed someone needs to do something.”

“Amen to that,” Alec grinned. “And I greatly admire the man that can take her on and walk away even a little bit intact.”

*****               

Crash

Early Evening

“Hey Boo,” Original Cindy sidled up to the bar, an almost empty mug of beer in hand. She came to rest on an empty stool next to her best friend and roommate.

“Hey Cin,” Max returned the greeting with a grin. The girls hadn’t had much time to get together during the day and looked forward to hanging at Crash and relaxing before they either headed home or off to pursue other activities.

“I see you and Hot Boy had another go around today,” Cindy touched on a subject that was coming up between them more often lately. Max rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“That idiot,” she grumbled. There hadn’t even been anything specific he had done just recently that had set her off. He’d just been annoying her more than usual the past few days and unfortunately Max couldn’t seem to pinpoint what it was that was bothering her. And tonight just wasn’t the time to contemplate it because she had actually been able to marginally relax. And she wasn’t going to risk that to get riled up over whatever scams Alec was contemplating.

“Mmm,” Cindy murmured, glancing quickly to the bartender, gesturing to her now empty mug. He caught her silent request of one long used to the business and returned it with his own nod, indicating that he’d fill her up next. Satisfied that that was taken care of, Cindy turned her attention to roaming the visual eye candy laid out before her. Pretty much the same old, same old. But she could deal. She always had something nibbling on her line. Cindy’s attuned senses noted that some small group had just entered the bar, and she quickly lifted her eyes to check them out. But it was just Alec and Biggs and anther male right behind the duo. Not all that disappointed, Cindy turned back to the bar to accept the beer from the tender. “Speakin’ of, there he is now.”

“Yay,” Max snorted before drawing a long sip of her drink, the same as Cindy’s. But all the same, she swiveled around on her stool and Cindy was very surprised to hear her friends sudden sharp intake of breath. “Oh my God,” she whispered softly, a note of reverence, something Cindy had never heard before from her friend, tingeing the words.

“Boo?” Cindy felt a brief moment of panic as her friend’s body tensed, like she was expecting attack and followed the line of Max’s staring form. All the way over to the stairs that led down from the main entrance. Where Alec and his little friend stood. What really got Cindy though, was unlike usual, instead of a look of consternation or annoyance on Max’s face, was this look of unutterable joy, longing etched in every pore. “Damn,’ she muttered, though she was unsure if the imprecation was fear or admiration. For one thing, Alec? Yeah, she’d admired his looks, how could she not, being an ardent admirer of the symmetry and beauty Manticore had achieved. She knew that her girl just didn’t feel that way for him. But on the other hand, it was obvious that Max was suddenly experiencing feelings that just did not come along but once in a freaking blue moon. And if it was for Alec, well so be it. She’d just let the boy know the ass-kicking he was in for if he treated Max in any way cavalierly.

But then again, her mind silently warned, Biggs was standing there too. And like the rest of Manticore’s creations, Cindy was not blind to the charms he laid claim to as well. Maybe the dark haired, boyish X5 was more to Max’s liking. It was hard to say. In the time Cindy had known her, the girl’s biological cravings had run the gamut. If Max liked a guy, it had to be more than about the looks. Cindy was surprised though when Max slid from her stool and began weaving her way through the crowd to the object of her interest, whichever it was. She thought for a moment that maybe Max’s heat cycle was rearing its ugly head. But Max had assured her shortly after her resurrection that Manticore had finally found out a drug to regulate and negate that state. And the drugs, while expensive (for others of more honest persuasion, at least) were fairly well available. And Max took them religiously. So decided, Cindy leaned back on her seat, beer in one hand, the other elbow bracing her on the bar, content to watch things unfold.

*****             

“I see Sketch,” Alec muttered as he and Biggs scanned the crowd from their vantage point at the top of the stairs. They were to meet the lanky friend for an evening of pool and beer.

“And there’s Max and Cindy at the bar,” Biggs rejoined, gesturing with compact motion in their direction. Alec grunted and that was the extent of acknowledgment he deigned to give. Right now, after Biggs’ needling all day, he didn’t really want to pay any mind to her, other than to stay out of her angry vicinity. Biggs seemed to recognize that and as they began to clatter down the steps, he offered, “first pitcher on me?”

“Yeah Biggs, great,” Alec grinned, relaxing into the flow of the evening. “I’ll catch Sketch and get a game going.” But before he could turn aside from the path cleared between door and bar, he caught sight of Max suddenly slipping from her stool and moving in their direction. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath. She’d caught sight of them and whatever tongue lashing she wanted to deliver, Alec knew that she would not rest until her goal was accomplished. He was debating the wisdom of which approach to take. Run and hide or just get it over with? But then, he caught a glimpse of something in her face. She was smiling. That was… unusual. Especially smiling at him. Alec wondered if he’d imagined it when he lost sight of her for a moment as someone taller and definitely more burly crossed her path.

When she emerged through the small knot of people a second later, Alec felt like he’d taken a bullet slug to the gut, so sudden was his loss of breath. The smile had only grown and she looked positively ethereal as a glow seemed to light her from within. Her body flowed with Manticore designed grace, easy, her stride determined. But gone was the tension that tightened her spine at every waking moment. She looked, contented, excited, like her world was finally right again. Whatever had happened in the moments when she had glanced up to see them arrive and this moment, he was profoundly grateful. Never in his life did he think that he would see anything as beautiful, as at peace as Max seemed to be now. And, his mind intruded slyly, if he was in any way the least little bit responsible for that, his days could only get better.

All this and other thoughts of a much more base nature assaulted him as Max neared. He found himself completely unaware of the things surrounding him as his focus narrowed more and more tightly on this enigmatic beauty nearing him. And some strange hope stirred and fluttered through his chest, setting his heart to pounding as Max’s hand reached out, came into contact with his chest and in half a second dashed away everything he hadn’t even realized he’d been hoping for as she pushed him aside.

Dumbfounded, both Alec and Biggs watched as Max launched herself up the stairs even more swiftly than they’d descended them and with a soft, barely audible keening cry, threw herself into the arms of the guy that had come into the bar on their heels. The guy, blond, fairly short in comparison to Alec, wearing jeans, t-shirt, a dark red unbuttoned dress shirt, combat boots and an ancient looking trench coat, engulfed Max, hugging her tightly to him. He buried his face in her hair as Max’s hands scrabbled over the leather covering his back, trying to draw him closer yet.

And then in a soft yet brash Cockney accented voice, the now obvious Brit dashed away any hopes Alec might have possibly developed with a lowly uttered, “hello love.”

And to their astonishment, Max did not protest the endearment. She simply continued to hold the stranger, to them obviously, not so much to her, and Alec, studying the physiology between them, was surprised to see that Max was shuddering slightly in the bleached blond's hold. What the hell was that about? He was about to intercede, his senses going on even higher alert than normal when the pair of them finally let loose of one another. And now they were staring into one another's faces and Max's hand came up to cradle the Brit's face even as the other leaned into her touch.

"God," she moaned out and as her face turned slightly, both Alec and Biggs could catch the tears glimmering in her eyes. "I thought..."

"I know," the Brit murmured back and Alec's lips thinned. Something was definitely off here and as he studied the other man, little noticing that he and Biggs were causing some congestive build up by not moving from their spots, he wondered what the hell was bothering him. Biggs however had noticed and reached to take his friend's arm via his coat sleeve and tugged slightly. Alec glanced quickly at his friend and then back to the pair on the stairs and reluctantly allowed himself to be moved to the side so other people could get through. But Biggs wisely didn't move them that far, they could still observe this interesting turn of events.

"Who the hell is this yahoo?" Alec demanded softly in a puzzled tone.

"Not sure," Biggs answered just as quietly. He was observing as well, though his ordered thoughts were much less chaotic than Alec's. He was simply using his Manticore given talents the way they were intended by that institution to be used. Alec's instincts had kicked in as well, but geared through a very different purpose. They both watched as Max finally turned back to the main room, guiding the stranger down the stairs, their hands clasped and a very beatific smile on the males face.

"You have to tell me everything!" Max commanded in a tone that brooked no refusal and the blond's face lit up and he laughed.

"That'd take more'n we've got left of the evening," he chuckled, eagerly following after Max. It seemed they were headed for the bar.

"Well just the highlights then," Max conceded easily. "Don't think you're going to get off easy Spike."

Well now, at least they finally had a name to go with the face. But.. Spike? Must have been a nickname, Alec decided, though he couldn't quite be certain.

"Alec, you want...?" Biggs trailed off after catching his friend's attention, gesturing to the bar that he'd just been about to meander over to. Alec nodded curtly and they moved off after the pair. They weren't so obvious as to plunk themselves down right next to the happily seeming reunited couple, but a few seats down. Fortunately, or un, depending on how you looked at it, Max didn't even seem to notice them. And while Alec discreetly watched the duo, his friend was gleefully watching Alec.

There were enough people in the bar that night that came and went between them that Alec and Biggs were only hearing snatches of the other couples' conversation. It was easy enough to discern where they knew each other from, with frequent mentions of Los Angeles. Alec knew and quietly filled Biggs in on the info he'd garnered from Max and others that she had lived there when she was younger. There were also mentions of a Sunnydale, which neither were familiar with. Once in a while, names were mentioned that the pair knew or knew of. Frequently Max laughed, her face lighting up again and this Spike character would break out into low chuckles, while shaking his head with amusement. But it wasn't all laughter and happiness.

During one point of the conversation, Max had asked after someone, they hadn't caught the name, but Spike's eyes drifted shut, his head hung low and he shook his head slowly in the negative. Max had given a startled exclamatory gasp and leaned forward to embrace the blond. He allowed it for several minutes, seeming to enjoy her hand stroking at his back once more, before he finally nudged her away. Unperturbed, Max moved back to sit fully upon her stool once more.

Finally, unable to deny her own curiosity, Original Cindy had moved into the fray and was happily welcomed by her friend and roommate and obviously introduced to the newcomer. And even while observing this, Alec took the opportunity to talk to his partner in crime for the evening.

"You know, if this guy is really British, I'll eat my damn coat," he hissed quietly in Biggs' direction.

"You don't think so?" Biggs asked in surprise. Alec shook his head.

"He's pretty good, but the accent?" Alec pointed out and Biggs nodded to get him to continue. "A little too highbrow for a pure Cockney." Biggs said nothing against that, trusting for the most part, his friends judgment when it came to this sort of thing.

"So what are we thinking?" Biggs asked, apparently happily sharing in his friends mistrust. This was leading into becoming a very interesting night, from his point of view. Alec shook his head, his lips pursed as he considered all the information that had come his way.

"Not sure yet," Alec shrugged one shoulder as his free hand toyed with his beer.

"Maybe Max's friend, what's his name, Cale?" Biggs began to suggest but Alec swiftly cut him off.

"Nothing Logan can do that we can't," Alec scoffed heavily into his beer mug. "Besides, the guy'd just worry himself to death over someone else besides him in Max's life. Let's not go there, hmm?"

"All right," Biggs shrugged equanimically. They quieted again as Cindy moved off to hunt down some fresh prey. Spike leaned towards Max and uttered something that sent the woman off into peals of laughter. He laughed as well, but seemed more content to watch Max enjoying whatever he said. The conversation eventually continued but both Alec and Biggs stilled when Max finally got around to asking her friend why he was in Seattle. That answer they heard loud and clear.

"Well luv, I was out 'n about and whatnot, and I heard meself some rumors about this place," Spike drawled slowly as he gestured to the bartender for a refill. "Rememberin' the good ol' days, thought I'd roll into town and mebbe and get in a few good kills."

"Really?" Max smirked. "What rumors?"

"Well, I was readin' the rags," her friend began and Max interrupted with a snort.

"Those pieces of crap?" she demanded incredulously and Alec shared a concerned look with his friend. Biggs was well aware that the transhuman, Joshua, had been captured on film and the picture sold to one of the very rags they were talking about. "Come on Spike, you can't believe everything you read."

"Oh course not," Spike waved one hand dismissively, leaning back on his stool nonchalantly. "But I was bored-."

"Aha!" Max crowed triumphantly. "I knew..."

And once again the conversation was lost.

What the hell was this guys motive? What was he? He didn't have the look of military, nor did he seem to be a part of White's elite bunch that was involved in hunting them down. Unless of course someone was hiring mercenaries. That was a possibility, but then this guy looked too, well, effete to be into that. Although both transgenic males knew just how deceiving outer shells could be. This guy could be the deadliest assassin the humans could come up with and they would have very few clues to go by, if he were any kind of professional at all.

Alec was lost in thought about this, but he was still observing the pair and so did not miss when Spike suddenly stiffened in his seat, his head turning to the right a bit. Beyond him, Max stilled as well, noticing her friend's sudden stillness and swung her head around. Alec followed their gaze as best he could, but all he could see was a couple emerging from the back room. Nothing new about that. Just a guy in woefully old, slightly grungy clothes with a young woman dressed in a barely there, come get me outfit that screamed sex. If anything were out of the ordinary, it would be that a girl that fine was with a guy that not. And in these times, pickin's were slim, so it wasn't all that unusual.

"You know them?" Biggs asked, obviously having done the same as Alec, catching the slight pauses and environmental shift that his friend has.

"Never seen 'em before," Alec shrugged. Which was the truth. He'd have remembered the girl, but he didn't.

"So what say luv," the Brit's enthusiastic voice caught their attention away from the unnamed couple once more. "You up for a bit o' rough 'n tumble?"

Max smiled widely, toying with her mug of beer. "You sure?" she asked him pointedly, her chin dipping low as she stared at her friend.

"Sure as I can be in this crowded a place," was the Brit's reply. Max seemed to mull that over while she took a pull of beer from her glass. Her mouth opened and both observers from afar could see her rolling her tongue around the inner contours of her mouth as she decided upon her next phrasing.

"And what about the initiative? Or what it was eventually replaced with?" she asked gently, but her friend just seemed to sneer and wave a hand dismissively.

"Piffle," he sputtered. "If she hadn't made the choice she did, pretty sure the Pulse woulda took care of that piece o' crap. Right suspicious timin' it was though."

"I'll say," she agreed dryly. Max quickly drained her beer as Spike did likewise. "All right, you're on. Better hurry if we want to catch 'em."

"Believe me, looks o' that bloke an' they won't be gettin' too far," Spike rejoined knowledgeably.

Alec and Biggs exchanged looks. They had no idea separately or between them what on earth the duo were about to get up to, but they certainly weren't going to miss the opportunity to find out more. Throwing some cash towards the bartender, Biggs stood to pull his jacket off the stool he'd been seated on, Alec doing likewise. They let a few moments pass before following the unlikely pair out of the bar. Obviousness just wasn't in their genetics unless they wanted it to be.

But when they emerged from the bar's exit and trundled up the steps, the only sounds they could hear was a bit of fighting just off the alleyway. And before they could even take one step towards the noise, the girl, looking completely different from the out for fun party girl of just minutes before to a completely panic stricken little girl, burst out of the alleyway. She reeled under the sudden change in lighting, from the dark alleyway to the semi-lit street lamps, caught sight of Alec and Biggs to her left and with instincts roused under fight or flight, chose to keep running. Not caring about the girl getting away, just noting it, they centered their attention on the alley.

"And another one bites the dust!" they heard Spike proclaim proudly. Amd although they were not looking at one another, they both wore identical frowns.

"Lame Spike," came Max's bored sounding reply. But then she chuckled and it sounded like they were emerging now themselves from the darkened, narrow area. "I can't believe the dick recognized you."

"Yeah well," he sounded moderately humble, mostly amused, "that's what comes from bein' one fourth o' the Scourge o' Europe."

"I bet," Max sounded amused as well. "But still, was kinda boring."

"Didn't put up much fight," Spike agreed. "I see you haven't lost the knack."

"Born and bred baby," Max laughed back. "You know that."

"Only after you convinced me you were no slayer," was his retort. "Say, any place we can knock up, you know of? I've been itchin' for this the whole time I was on the road."

"Yeah sure," Max agreed. "There's a couple places. Though I don't get down there often. Seattle's not the hot spot like Sunnyhell, or even close to LA."

"Nothin' ever could be," Spike snorted. "'Cept Cleveland. But I headed that way back in 2010 for a while. Still ain't that bad."

"Cleveland?" came Max's voice, just preceding her by a fraction of a moment. To Alec's relief, she seemed just fine, she was busy dusting off the sleeve of her jean jacket, while Spike right behind her was swirling his long duster around him before settling into it comfortably. "Seriously?"

"As a heart attack luv."

"Who would'a thunk it." Max glanced around and Alec was sure that she had noticed he and Biggs, though she just as quickly dismissed them to continue conversing with her friend. "So what're you driving? The De Soto?"

"Nah, finally had to ditch it," Spike shrugged one shoulder. “Took his convertible. You still got that little rice grinder o' yours?"

Max nodded. "But of course. Let's go. You got a sector pass?"

"Nothin' but the best luv," Spike smirked as his hand dug into the pocket of his long coat.

And with that, the pair headed off, leaving Alec and Biggs with very little clues as to what the hell that had all been about.

And that was the last they saw of the pair that evening. But to Alec's consternation, Max and Spike were soon an acknowledged duo. Never at work of course. But somehow, he kept missing her, either by a while, or just barely at Jam Pony. And Normal certainly wasn't complaining about it. It seemed he was very happy that Max was in such a good mood from the arrival of her very old friend, since it put the girl in a better mood and she was happy to get her work done in a timely and semi-respectful manner. And according to Cindy, that happiness had translated itself into some good tips for Max. Tips that apparently went into beer and skittles for her and her pal.

It was three days since the arrival of Spike before Alec caught up to her again. He'd arrived at Crash, alone, blew off Sketch with the excuse that he was worn out and didn't feel like playing pool right then and even more stunning, shrugged off the attention of a nubile young blond, with her fingers creeping up his arm. Alec made his way to the bar and ordered a whiskey neat, deliberately leaving his jacket on, should he need to make a quick move.

He'd had to scan the bar to figure out where Max and her cohort were. But he'd finally spotted them at a table in the back, just kitty corner off the other end of the bar. He watched and waited for his opportunity.

It finally came after several drinks, when it was Max's turn to get their pitcher filled. In between that time, they'd played a game of foosball, their laughter ringing out for all to hear. Drank some more. Then had a match at the pool table, in which Spike seemed to be using the pool cue more as a prop to whatever story he was telling Max, than actually playing, so she beat him soundly. And then more drinking. At last then Max had risen with the beer pitcher in hand. Alec was thankful that there were people standing, knotted about the end of the bar. Max swiftly made her way around them and sidled up to the beaten furniture a little closer to where Alec was perched. As she waited, Alec spared a glance at the Brit. He was surprised at how well the man seemed to be handling his liquor. But then again, that could have been a black mark against the stranger. That he drank so much, that several shared pitchers barely affected him. Or that maybe he was more used to drinking the hard stuff. All of this information was filed away in Alec's brain to be examined at a later time.

"Hey Maxie," he greeted as casually as he could. He hid his rueful smile and the sudden niggling pain when she actually startled out of her reverie before turning to face him.

"Alec," she spoke quietly, a crease forming in her brow that was a very well known prelude to a frown. "When did you get here?"

Hell, she hadn't noticed him at all?

"Couple hours ago," he informed her, his tone slightly acerbic. "Guess you were too busy catchin' up with your friend to notice, huh?"

The frown that had been forming, immediately transformed back to the gracious smile and her brown eyes lit up as she glanced at the blond Brit. "Oh yeah," she chuckled, though the sound conveyed much more than amusement to Alec's ears. "Spike," she mentioned, unknowingly unnecessary for Alec. But still. "It's been a lot of years since I last saw him."

"Uh huh," Alec prompted. He wasn't sure what line of questioning he could use on her. Straight out and she'd wonder why the hell he was interested. Vague and leading and she'd probably miss the point. And worst of all, should Alec choose to air some of his concerns, she'd get all uppity at his attacking a friend of hers and hightail it away from him. Probably after delivering a resounding smack down on delicate parts of his person. But apparently, fairly unconcerned seeming was the way to go, as Max's face softened considerably and her gaze darted to the polished surface of the bar.

"I thought he was dead," she admitted, though Alec had already garnered that from the first night. And granted again, that could have accounted for the emotion that ran the gamut through her then and still. "After all the crap that went down in L.A., I didn't get the chance..." she trailed off and then an impish grin was back. "But hell, it's all water under the bridge, right? He''s here now and it's all good." She waved her hand dismissively. Just then the bartender made his way by and snagged Max's pitcher. Alec decided that all he could do now was keep the conversation going.

"So what does he do?" Alec queried, resting one arm on the bar, leaning in much like Max was.

"Do?" she echoed.

"Yeah," Alec elaborated, "like work or business? Or is he another high-minded silent benefactor like the mighty Logan Cale?" He could have bitten his tongue as the name slipped from his tongue, but apparently it didn't bother Max as she began to laugh. "What?"

"Spike?" she sputtered. "Work? Right. As if."

"What?" Alec demanded again, his own lips quirking in response to her mirth. "What's so funny?"

"Spike working?" she repeated through her laughing jag. "That'd be the day."

"Why?" Alec pressed. "What, is he like allergic to honest labor or somethin'?"

"More like the sun," Max supplied, her shoulders still shaking with laughter. She apparently caught Alec's puzzled glance as she shook her head. "Seriously."

"He's allergic to the sun?" Alec asked skeptically. That was... interesting. Of course, if it was somewhere on earth or in this case, the cosmos, there was sure to be someone who had a problem with it. "So is that why we never see him around during the day?"

"Pretty much," Max nodded and then wrinkled her nose up, giggling. "It's really bad. I mean, I know people that sunburn bad, their skin is so light. But Spike, two seconds in the sun and poof! He just... burns right up!"

"Ouch," Alec grimaced in sympathy. That was a nasty sounding allergy. Thankfully it wasn't something he'd ever have to worry about. Of course, he was more concerned about Max now as she threw her head back and laughed until she was having to hang on to her sides. Before he could say anything else, the bartender had returned Max's pitcher, newly full and she picked it up, turning away, shaking her head and made her way back to her table, leaving Alec to wonder why his comment was just so damn funny.

And that was his last chance to talk with her that evening. The pair had slipped out when his attention was focused on working out this conundrum. And by the time he'd gotten out of the bar, they were nowhere in sight.

But that didn't mean he didn't hear exactly what they had gotten up to. For the next morning, Sketchy was eager enough to fill him in. It turned out that the Brit had consented to give Sketch a ride home. But apparently, when they were walking the stoner to his building, since Sketch himself admitted that he could barely stand up, an organized hit had spilled out of a back alleyway. And to the lanky man's astonishment, they were caught in the middle of it and what did Spike (bastard of a do-gooder) do, but jump in front of a bullet that would have hit Sketch or Max for sure! Alec's eyes had gone wide with that revelation and barely caught the rest of the story, in which Max had herded Sketchy into his building before helping Spike off to presumably get medical attention.

When Max finally made it into work that morning and after Alec had filled Biggs in on the details that the dark haired man had thus far missed, Alec made a beeline straight for her. She seemed a little startled at being pulled aside so abruptly, but he was able to head off her protest with the quickly worded, "Sketch told me what happened last night. Is your friend okay?"

"Spike?" she frowned. "He's fine. What did Sketch say?"

"Just that he jumped in front of a bullet," Alec repeated. He frowned as well, shaking his head in disbelief. If any other of her friends had been shot, accidental or not, the Max he knew would be freaking out right about now. But somehow, she was calm and... what the hell had happened? "Did you take him to the hospital?"

"Why would I do that?" Max demanded, her eyes puzzled. "It wasn't that big a deal."

"Oh," Alec sighed as something akin to relief, at least for sparing Max the agony of losing a friend, swept through him. "Okay, I just thought..."

"Thought what?"

"Well, you know, if he needed to be sewn up or a blood transfusion. Or whatever."

And again, frustratingly, there was that slow grin that bespoke of vast supplies of amusement that he just had no clue where was coming from. "Oh yeah, he needed blood," she confirmed. "So I hooked him up."

"You transfused him?" Alec tried to clarify, lowering his voice conspiratorially, his eyes darting around to see who was near them. "Was that wise? I mean, I know you know the guy, but these days..."

She was shaking her head, that newfound fountain of mirth ready to erupt again. As she moved to go around him and head to her locker, he heard her chuckle, "you worry too much Alec." She never turned back to see his gaping mouth and dumbfounded eyes. She just... she really said that!

By the end of the day, Alec was resolved. It wasn't a new sensation to deal with. He'd been resolved before. Just never to this degree and for this reason. In Manticore, it was every soldier for themselves. In the outside world it was much the same. But Max was his... something damn it! And Alec was determined that he was going to figure out what the hell this Spike had that could turn Max into a happy-go-lucky sociopath that seemed lighter and freer than any other time Alec had known her in their comparatively short span of time. No whining about Logan, no smacking him whenever she got too stressed out, laughing all the time, working hard and actually getting along with Normal as much as possible. It was if the woman were possessed!

And it was with the worry that something very dreadful might be behind this sudden behavior change fueling him, that Alec followed her after work that night.

And at first it seemed like an ordinary night and Alec did not actually mean that pun. It meant, well, a relaxing night in which they could kick back and relax with their beer and skittles and whatever else they felt. For that's exactly what Max seemed to be doing.

She had stopped on her way home to pick up some take out. Alec worried for a little there, since there seemed to be more than what he figured she would eat by herself. Taking a hint out of her book, he stopped and grabbed something for himself as well, silently urging the server to hurry it the hell up. He didn't want to lose Max. But all was well when he saw her up ahead, take out bag swinging from the handle bar of her bike, taking a corner and then it was that he realized where she was going.

She made the pit stop, though not actually as short as that, Alec imagined, at Joshua's house. He knew that she did that. She had forced him to go on one of her shopping trips for the big guy a while ago and Alec had sworn never to do so again. It was one thing to get himself food, but Max had been insistant that they needed an ass load of canned goods, and not outdated stuff either. They had stocked the big lug's cupboards full of canned preserved crud, showed him how to use the electric can opener Max had scored and left him with a manual back up. All of that had been tolerable. It had been the three block walk, carrying the box of said canned goods that Alec had discovered that he hated manual labor even more and spent most of the trip whining about why they hadn't borrow Logan's car for this.

But now, as she tried to do as often as possible, Max was taking a hot meal to Joshua. Alec wracked his brain, remembering that Max had been on about something to do with him a little while ago. Something about getting Joshua some more supplies. But it wasn't just food. Alec suddenly remembered, she had asked him to keep an eye out for any salvageable pots and pans for their friend to use. It hadn't rated high on Ale's to-do list, so he'd just, as usual, shunted the request to the back of his mind.

Relieved that he knew where she was for the time being, Alec headed down the street to an old abandoned park. He had seen Max's bike, through the window in Joshua's living room, so he knew she would be staying to eat. If she wasn't, she would have chained it up on the porch, or even just left it for a moment. So Alec took the opportunity to find a tree he could set his back against, keep an eye on Joshua's house and gulp down the dinner he had procured.

After about forty-five minutes, he heard Max's voice, slight, from far away of course and realized that she was heading out. He stayed put as she moved out onto the street, moving casually as she was glancing both ways down the street. Not checking for traffic of course, but a Manticore ingrained habit. He waited until she was heading down the street before slowly following. He hoped that she was on her way home to the apartment that she and Cindy shared. Following just far enough back to keep track of her if she variated or went her usual route, Alec breathed a sigh of relief when her apartment building came into view without losing her.

Knowing that the building across from hers was abandoned and was close enough for good re con, Alec stashed his bike behind a dumpster and found the quickest, easiest entry point that he could before dashing up the stairs to the relevant floor, level with Mx and Cindy's. He had to check a few empty rooms, seeing as how it was an old office building. That made it easier than if it were an apartment complex being squatted in like it's neighbor across the way.

He completely lucked out when he opened one door and heard Original Cindy giggling happily. Under cover of shadow, Alec checked out the room and noted that several of the windows were broken, the glass littering the floor underneath. With the window open in their apartment, Max and Cindy's conversation carried quite easily. Alec decided that after this little mission was over, he'd return and repair the damage. Max should have checked this out herself, but there was no way that he could let her know, because even if he said nothing, she was still smart enough to figure out how he knew that their conversations could be overheard.

“So where are you an' yo' boy off to tonight, suga?” the African American asked of her friend, co-worker and roommate.

“Gonna hit Black Magic again,” came Max's reply and it was a little muffled. Alec moved around a little until he was able to see that while he could hear Cindy clearly, he could not see her. The same however, was definitely not true for Max. Alec sucked in a breath as he realized that he could see straight into her bedroom. And the image of her, her back to him, dressed simply in a pair of red leather pants that clung to her every curve and a skimpy black bra, was one that he was definitely filing away in the spank bank. Now, if he could just will her to turn around. But she didn't. Instead, she pulled a tank top over her head and the caramel colored skin disappeared, to Alec's great disappointment.

“Dat's the third time dis week Boo,” Cindy teased. “Somethin' goin' on you ain't tellin' e?”

“What can I say?” Max laughed as she turned to start pulling a brush through her hair. “I like the games they play.”

“Mmm hmmm,” the black woman grunted in response and suddenly she appeared in Max's bedroom doorway. “Or maybe you likin' that hot stud hangin' on yo arm everywhere you go.”

“Spike?” Max flicked a glance at her room mate. “Of course I like having Spike around.”

“Or maybe you more than like the boy?” Cindy hinted and Alec felt himself leaning forward, his face unaccountably flushed. This was definitely something he wanted to hear and he strained his ears for the conversation sure to spill forth.

“Spike?” Max repeated herself and then fiddled with the brush for a moment. “We had... something... I don't know what you want to call it, back in the day. But he's never gonna get over her and I don't think, well, I know I can't fight a ghost.”

Apparently this seemed to worry Cindy as much as it did Alec. The woman moved forward to take a seat at the end of Max's bed and regarded her friend intently. “Do ya want there to be somethin' Boo?”

“I don't think so,” Max chuckled. “Believe me, Spike is great to roll with. He's got a handle on the action, but ever since California...” Her voice trailed off and Alec was mentally yelling at her to finish the sentence. Obviously though, Cindy had way more patience than he did and she rubbed at Max's shoulder and just waited. “No, I think I'll just take what I can get and when he moves on again, just be happy that we had what we could get.”

“Ya know, you don't have to settle fo bein' second best,” Cindy advised, almost too softly for Alec to hear and he silently cheered her on. She didn't have to settle, not for Logan, not for this Spike character. There were so many better options out there and if he was honest with himself, as Alec so rarely, truly was, he wanted to be one of those options.

“It's not settling,” Max defended as she threw down her brush and then picked up some make-up doodad that Alec was only barely familiar with and began doing something to her eyes.

She continued with her little diatribe as she continued applying all the goop that girls seemed to find necessary. “He was head over heels in love with the girl and she died. Or at least that time, everyone thought she had. He made a promise to her that he'd protect her sister and he did. So when she made it back, it was just... And then all that crap went down in Sunnydale and he ended up in LA and she went to Europe, both of them trying to move on. But he never stopped loving her. I knew that right from the beginning. Spike was always brutally honest about that. Yes, I had a crush on him when I was younger. But then he clued me into the really real. And he protected me Cin. When things got bad, he was the one that was there for me. And I can't give you the details, but he gets it. The crap with Manticore, my family, he understood because he was there too.”

“At Manticore?” Cindy questioned quickly, her surprised tone echoing Alec's perfectly. But then Max, finished with her eyes and now searching out various shades of lipstick, chuckled.

“No, but Spike's not exactly a stranger to secret black ops division of the government,” she tittered. She deftly applied a bright red shade, nearly exactly matching that of her leather pants and once she'd recapped it, continued. “Because of all that, because of the way Spike treated me, I will always love him. But I'm not deluding myself because it will always be just what it is now. A little partying, a lot of fun and when he gets bored again, he'll roll on, looking for the next distraction.”

There was a small silence and Cindy seemed to deflate a little. Finally she stood and wrapped her arms around her best friend. Max sat patiently for it, patting at the other girl's arm. “A'iight boo. Jus' so long as you know the score.”

“I do,” she agreed. “Now shoo, Spike's gonna be here in a minute.”

“Really wish you'd tell me more 'bout this club,” Cindy chuckled and Alec, almost ready to get the hell out of there before he was caught, paused. He had to admit, Black Magic was not a club he was even aware of and he'd thought he'd searched out all of the Seattle nightly hot spots. “It sounds... interestin'.”

“It's not for the faint of heart,” Max chuckled darkly. “Or the... uninitiated.” She laughed at whatever private joke she was having and Alec could see Cindy bristling a little. He wasn't surprised. Max seemed to have noticed as well and turned in her seat. “Sorry Cin, but it's kinds exclusive. You need the right creds to get in, creds I picked up from a lot of work back in Cali. And if it weren't for Spike, I probably wouldn't be admitted.”

Alec frowned. And then swore softly to himself. Damn it, he should have seen this! This Spike jerk, yanking Max around on a short leash, knowing that she was in love with him and using it for his own amusement! Taking her into dangerous places where who the hell knew what they were getting into. Christ! What if he'd gotten her hooked on something? Not like it was likely with an X-5, but stranger things had happened.

Completely resolved now, with a plan of action in mind, Alec abandoned his post, booking it down to street level to keep an eye out for this British wannabe, effeminate waste of space. It wasn't long before the easily recognizable black convertible rumbled it's way up the street, and Spike was parking, letting the engine idle. Alec noted that he was on the phone and at first he wondered if Spike had called Max, but then he realized, from the snippet of conversation he heard through the rolled down window, that Spike was talking to some unknown quantity. He crept closer, keeping to the shadows until he could hear more clearly, what the man was saying.

“... hits going down tonight,” Spike was remarking desultorily. He paused for a moment. “Yeah, she's fine. Definitely fine,” he drawled as he took a moment to glance up at Max's apartment building. “I tell ya Angel, lil Maxie grew up damn nice. The bit showed just as much promise as we thought she would.”

Alec bristled as the bleached blond ass wipe continued enumerating Max's... assets. Was that all the creep could think about? His jaw worked furiously as he strove not to just leap out of the shadows, yank the moron from his admittedly classic car and beat him to a bloody pulp.

“Yeah,” Spike was saying now, “she 'thinks' she's gonna be bait tonight. I tell ya, Max is gonna be getting' one helluva wake up call about that.” He spoke determinedly and then grunted and chuckled over something his contact said, but Alec had gone completely still. Hit? Bait? The pseudo Brit was planning something. Something that was going to hurt, possibly kill Max?

Alec cursed himself roundly, if silently. He knew he should have listened to his instincts. He knew he should have pushed Max harder about this supposed friend of hers. Well, now he knew the truth and there was no way in hell that this bastard was going to touch a hair on his Maxie's head!

Wishing that he had time to grab his bandit, Alec swore softly when he saw Max emerge from her apartment building and head straight for the car. She climbed in, while Spike was still on the phone. Alec strained forward and heard her greeting.

“Hey hang on,” Spike spoke into the phone and then held it out to Max. “Someone wants to say hello, luv.”

Max took the phone, her face curious and when she heard whomever it was on the other end, her face lit up. “Angel! Hi. Oh my God! How are you?” she enthused and Alec's heart clenched again. These people that she trusted? That she loved? These bastards were going to betray her, hurt her, possibly kill her?

He forced himself to take several deep calming breaths and as he did so and the car began to slowly trundle off, a plan formed in his mind.

Abandoning his bike and grabbing for his own cell phone, in the same moment, Alec was racing towards Max's building. Good thing he knew this number by heart. The call picked up just as Alec entered Max's building. “Luke? It's Alec. I need information, pronto.”

“Alec? What's going on?” the transhuman hiding out in Terminal City, the bio-toxic dump of Seattle, asked warily.

“Max is in trouble,” Alec replied succinctly. That by itself wouldn't have caused any sort of uproar, but Alec making the call? That'd get their asses in gear. “I need to know everything you can find out about a club called Black Magic, like now.”

“All right man,” the transhuman acquiesced. Alec could hear the clatter of a keyboard as he raced up the steps, two or more at a time. Finally he reached the door to Cindy and Max's apartment, turning the knob and throwing it open, startling Cindy. She was in the kitchen and her shriek of surprise, bothered Alec not one whit.

“Got an emergency,” he barked at her as he headed straight to the living room where Max stored her ninja. “Transgenic needs rescuing,” he offered, not saying that Max was the transgenic in question. Cindy, her hand over her heart, nodded dumbly and then moved to a cupboard and retrieved something.

“Alec, here,” she called his attention back and when he turned, it was to see a set of keys flying through the air. He caught them deftly and tersely smiled his thanks. One thing you could always say about Cindy, the girl was as sharp as a whip. Inserting the key into the ignition, Alec turned it enough so that he could maneuver the motorcycle down stairs without having to just heft it up on his shoulder and hot wire it outside. That was good, it would save him time. And bless her, Cindy dashed ahead and called up the ancient elevator. It arrived just as Alec was getting to the doors, which was great, as he'd been fully prepared to rush down the stairs. Once he was in the elevator, with Cindy calling out wishes of luck, he hear through his cell phone, Luke come back to him.

“All right,” he began, sounding slightly confused. “Black Magic's only been open for about two months. Goth club, high end clientèle. There's not much else, just an address.”

“Give it to me,” Alec barked. Luke was accommodating as usual and when the elevator doors opened once more, Alec had his phone stashed and a destination to head to.

Getting there was easy, knowing the city as he did by now. But discerning what the hell was going on was an entirely different matter. Upon arriving at the club, he could see that it was precisely what Luke had told him, a Goth club, with young hopefuls waiting in line down the street. The costumes and paraphernalia were varied, but the teens and young adults that made up the crowd were talking and passing the time just as normally as others did. As Alec watched, every once in a while, a couple would approach the door man, who carried neither clipboard or any indication of a list. Perhaps it was all in his head. But after glancing over ether the male or female, it varied, he would or would not allow them entrance. There was even at one point, a young woman, something about her, even watching her from the alley across the street, set Alec's teeth on edge and raised his hackles.

This new female approached the door man, wearing an impossibly tight leather vest that laced up the front, barely covering her assets, leather pants and boots with stiletto heels. The outfit looked painted on and Alec idly wondered how on earth she could breath in it. She ambled, more than walked and when as she moved past them, the crowd in line stirred anxiously and she watched them, amusement written all over her face. She reached the door man and whispered something in his ear. He looked amused and as the woman stepped back, he stood from his stool and moved out into the street a little before gesturing at someone about halfway down. A very young girl, disbelieving for a moment that he was pointing at her, hesitantly stepped out of the line and when he nodded, she abandoned those she was with to move forward at a fast clip. Once she had reached the pair at the door, the woman scooped one arm over the shorter girl's shoulders and the door man waved them in, while the rest of the crowd watched, envy coloring their faces.

Alec could tell immediately that sauntering up to the front door was going to garner him no luck. On the surface, he was no different than the young males vying to get in and failing. His charm and the general feeling of familiarity and trust that he could produce from training and genetics would make no difference, it seemed. So therefore, he needed to find an alternate route in. A quick scan of the warehouse sized building that was thrumming and jumping, the beat from the frenzied music inside audible to his ears, yielded a few open windows on the rear side.

Alec quickly made his way around the block, quickly picking out a young man on his way to join the queue. He knocked him out, stashing him in the alley as he took the kid's boots, only slightly pinching, dog collar, chains and gloves. He didn't bother with any of the piercings, since in his eyes it was pointless. But a quick search of the kids leather jacket, similar to his own, yielded some black lipstick and eyeliner. Alec used a window to deftly apply both to his face and decided that he'd pass muster of a quick glance. It wasn't like he was planning on being there long.

Scaling the wall took mere seconds and then he was in. Black Magic was about what he expected, finding himself in a back hallway. There were some office doors and a kitchen from what Alec could tell. He could hear employees going about their business and saw the access door to the basement. But knowing that Max and her “friend” hadn't been in line, was aware that they had to be somewhere around the interior. Affecting a confident stride, he headed towards the front of the building, where the music was louder. And as his nostrils were telling him, the billows of dry ice that greeted him was thick and picked up the laser lights darting around the room while bodies gyrated on the floor.

Alec grimaced as people wheeled around him, not paying him the slightest bit of attention. There was something so drastically off here. Obviously it was some sort of fetish club, he could tell that because beyond an ordinary night club or dance club, there were alcoves all over that were nearly all full of couples, still clothed, but sucking on various body parts. Alec filed that information away. It was going on out on the dance floor as well, and at some tables, but discreetly. Some teens were snacking on foods, others, mostly girls spinning in circles and Alec sniffed several times, but could not detect any hint of drugs in these peoples sweat and pheromones. There had to be something though. He just knew it, in his very bones. And that he couldn't decipher it, that scared him.

No, that Max was here and he didn't have her back... that's what really scared him.

His heart dropped to the floor when he finally caught sight of her. She was on the dance floor gyrating slowly while that bastard she called friend, possibly more, was wrapping himself around her, from behind. She had her arms raised, one of them weaving through the blond's short, slick locks. The other wove an abstract pattern as the Brit's hands roamed over her hips. He pulled her sharply to him and Alec bit off a swear at her contented, dreamy smile that was strangely at odds with their surroundings. They moved together for a few minutes as Spike nuzzled at her neck and Max continued her bemused slow, sensual movements. Despite the dangers he knew to be present, Alec was still able to appreciate the picture she created. If only he could erase the thought of that poofy cretin behind her.

But then Alec nearly saw red when the damnable Brit raised his head from her neck and with unerring precision, looked straight at Alec. He squinted slightly and when Alec saw the light of recognition in his eyes, smirked at the X5 and then moved so that he was nuzzling the other side of her neck, hidden from Alec's view by the curtain of her long hair shimmering under the overhead lights. Alec growled when her body shuddered and he could clearly hear her shocked gasp. Scant seconds later, he smelled the sharp tang of her blood in the air.

The fucker had bitten her! Drawn blood!

Alec surged forward but was stunned when he heard Max's laughter ring out and then her words...

“Took you long enough baby,” she murmured, her voice slurred. His eyes darkened as he felt a little sick. Max had a pain kink? Blood? Was that why she and white bread Logie never got it together?

But then the scene was changing before him again, confusing Alec and if there was a list of things he truly hated, being confused and unable to make sense of things was right up there.

Several other males had approached the couple, threading through the bodies oblivious to their surroundings. He definitely heard Spike growl and then the blond's head came up sharply. He looked over the crowd until his gaze settled, and hardened. Without looking at the interlopers, he seemed to be arguing as Max made a moue of protest. Alec quickly followed Spike's gaze and after a moment, could make out another lanky figure, up on a catwalk. The creep was pale, paler than most and more so than Alec had ever seen. His eyes were bloodshot and had deep, dark circles around them, apparent even in the dim lights barely reaching him.

The slim figure apparently had decided that the otherworldly strangeness he exuded wasn't enough and was wearing of all things, a purple lined black cape that swirled around his body, down to his feet, encased in foppy leather slouch boots. Alec cataloged everything, but his main focus was Max and when he turned back to her, it was to see the males leading her away from Spike, while the Brit stood, slightly cowed, fuming and glaring at the other figure on the catwalk with hatred. Finally, at last, the Brit spun away and stormed his way through the crowd.

Dismayed at what the hell was going on now, only knowing that there was something dreadfully off with Max, Alec moved to follow discreetly after the group. She had ascended the steps to the catwalk, seemingly content to trail along wherever the pair of goons led her. When she came to a halt before the prick in the cape, she lifted her chin, just slightly defiantly and looking bemused and just a tad smug. The caped wonder reached out one hand to cup her cheek and then trailed fingers down to her neck before pulling his hand back to presumably taste whatever droplet of blood that Spike's bite had drawn. Alec grimaced as the creep smiled and then looked to one of the goons. A clipped order had them searching Max and Alec frowned as they pulled a dagger from her boot and of all things, a wooden stake from the back waist band of her pants .

The one that had retrieved Max's strange stash of weapons showed them to the creep who plucked the dagger from his lackey's hand and studied it. He then stowed it in his cape and with the same motion, swirled the material around as he brought Max to his side and they moved away, along the catwalk, leaving the goons behind.

Knowing that he could easily take them out, but didn't want to draw attention too early, Alec simply tracked Max's progress as he moved his way closer. But just when they reached the other end of the walk and were beginning their descent, Alec was stopped by a strong, cold hand on his chest.

“Before you think of rushing off to play hero to the damsel,” Spike's voice was cold and harsh in his ear, “don't!”

Alec chanced a moment to take his eyes off of his target, snarling at the other man, shoving his hand off of his chest. “Who the fuck do you think you are to tell me anything!” The Brit gave him a smarmy grin, hooking his thumbs in his jean belt loops. It incensed Alec, already at a boiling point and he threw the punch instinctively, a gut reaction. But the blond ducked it easily, spinning around to catch the fist flying at him and with a deceptive strength had Alec in his grips.

Alec, rapidly reassessing the smaller man's abilities, threw his eyes to check on Max's progress. They had made it down the steps and she was being led to the back, from where Alec had originally entered the main room.

“I'm the bloke who's trying to keep you from being served up as a snack,” Spike growled in Alec's ear. “You go in there half-cocked, he'll kill her with no hesitation.”

That stilled Alec instantly. He shook his head. “What the hell is going on?” he panted out. “I heard you earlier...”

“Whatever it was,” Spike grunted, “is still no cause to play the dense white hat. She knows what she's doing. Don't like it, but this is our only chance and if you fuck it up mate, then a lot more little girls are going to die!”

Alec scowled and waited and apparently Spike believed him cowed enough to release him, though he danced back a few steps out of Alec's reach. As Alec turned, he saw Spike retrieving something, then tensed when he saw the curved dagger appear from an inside pocket of Spike's duster. But he was stymied when the Brit thrust it towards him, hilt first. Cautiously, Alec took it. Blades weren't his weapon of choice. Give him a Glock any day of the week and twice on Sunday's. But somehow Spike read him and shook his head while searching for something else.

“This ain't a gun fight, soldier boy,” Spike smirked and pulled out a stake, quite similar to the one that Max had been sporting. And a zippo lighter. He tossed both items to Alec, who caught them deftly.

“Loose that lighter and I'll have your balls tacked up before you can say Lucky Charms,” Spike grinned. Alec winced and shook his head. A soldier he might be, but even if orders hadn't made sense back in the day, at least he'd sort of understood whatever the hell he was being thrust into. This, he was really starting to get an uneasy feeling about. Apparently Spike saw that as well. “Crash course time. You're either in or out, 'cause I've no time to mollycoddle you through what really goes bump in the night. You with me?”

“Max is in danger?” he ascertained. The blond nodded. Alec followed suit with the gesture and he read relief in the other man's eyes.

“Someone comes at you, stake 'em through the heart,” Spike instructed. He held up a hand as Alec seemed about to protest. “Trust me, they won't be humans and not any of your lot.” Alec filed away the thought that Spike seemed to be more in the know than most about “his lot” and wondered if Max had spilled the beans at some point. “Pull the stake back or you'll loose it. If you do, work the dagger to take their heads off. I know it defies logic, but I've seen how strong you buggers are. An' fast too. That don't work, burn the fuckers. Got it?”

Alec nodded, feeling slightly dumb, in both physical and mental sense of the word.

“Good,” Spike continued, glancing over Alec's shoulder. “They're on their way to his little play room. He's been planning on this for a while, so he'll want to draw it out. Maxie knows her part, but we can't waste time. Take 'em down fast and quiet. Ready?” He barely paused and was then moving forward. “Let's go!”

Alec, unsure how Spike had gone suddenly from rival to partner, dogged the shorter man's heels as they made their way to the back hallway. There were several goon types standing at the entrance to the basement door access and Spike ambled up to them like a good old boy and in the blink of an eye, they had disappeared.

If Alec had been any less numb at the moment, or not a trained soldier, he might have let out a yelp of horror. The things, he couldn't call them anything else, were there and then there was just a miasma of dust settling to the floor.

Spike leveled him an amused look and pulled the basement door open. “It's now or never. Let's cowboy up, pardner. We got a damsel that needs rescuing.”

Alec followed again, stepping lightly through what had been, just seconds before, sentient seeming beings. Why did he suddenly feel like Alice falling through a very dark and dangerous rabbit hole?

*****

There were more opponents than Alec would have believed. All of them moved at speeds close to what he could achieve and now that he was paying attention, he was starting to be able to separate what differentiated them from normal humans. No audible heartbeats like the one of his own pounding in his ears, was apparently a dead giveaway. He'd appreciate the silliness of that pun later. And when the lack of light prompted him to dilate his eyes to allow the maximum flow of light into his feline enhanced vision, he realized that none of the bodies around him were giving off any ambient heat. It was like the dead were suddenly animated and an old bit of folklore tugged at his memories.

Vampires.

He didn't bother thinking on that as he moved swiftly into a routine of plunge and move on, plunge and move on. The stake that he held started to become a natural extension of himself, employed much like he would have a dirk. The dagger was a deterrent on the few occasions he had more than one opponent. The martial arts skills that he had were negated by the enemy having the same skills and apparently no mores about using them as they pleased. Well Alec was an assassin of the new world and learned the enemy quickly, succinctly and well enough to use these things against them.

What was unnerving?

Spike beside him, engaging in the same maneuvers with a flair and style of mockery that on any other being, Alec might enjoy, appreciate and applaud. The maniacal laughter and quips weren't lost, just stowed away to be looked at later in Alec's memory banks.

At last they came to the end of the basement corridor, and their enemies were vanquished and a huge bonus, Alec realized, no bodies to have to explain to the police, should the jack-offs ever put two and two together and actually get a ballpark figure. Before Alec could ascertain that Max was behind that door, Spike had stilled him, cocking his head and Alec mimicked him, hoping dreadfully that he had not been led astray, like a lamb to the slaughter. But something in his gut told him to trust... to wait.

The conversation behind the closed door made his stomach shrivel and his heart clench, but her slurred, honeyed tone was a relief.

“... did you do to me?” she was asking.

“Very simply put my dear,” the Dracula wannabe, as Alec had finally pegged him for, was chuckling in a corny Euro-trash accent, “is that I went to great lengths to procure the serum your precious Watcher's Council once used in the Cruciamentum. Taking away your strength, your speed, your senses. You, darling Lena, will be as a regular girl until such time as it wears off.”

“Why?” Max slurred and Alec frowned. Who the hell was Lena?

“You think me dense?” the vampire behind the closed door taunted. They could hear it in his voice, the heavy bemusement. “I have known William the Bloody since he was but a fledgling. Had it not been for that ponce Angelus' ego, I would have taken him under my wing. He would have been a known terror throughout the world still instead of playing these silly games, my child.” There was a pause and a small scuffle, but Spike's hand stilled Alec when his body sifted forward.

“Wait for it,” he whispered in such low tones that Alec could barely hear him.

“And once William has so kindly demolished those imbeciles that I call minions, I will deal with him once and for all. For too many of these recent years, he has been a thorn in my side. Once he is removed, then I will take my leisure in teaching you what it means to be a slayer. To hunt, to kill. And when you have reached your peak, I will turn you. You will be my queen and your thirst will be legendary.”

“There's just one thing,” Max sighed and Alec frowned, her voice fading.

“And what is that, my dear?” the Euro-jerk chuckled.

“The name? Is Max!”

That sounded loud and clear and with a delighted chuckle, Spike was kicking down the door. Alec saw instantly that the Dracu-dead had Max, holding her from behind. She rose up from her slouch and her hand shot up to grip the male's throat, stunning him as he knew not which threat now before him was greater. Max threw him over her shoulder, taking up a defensive stance while Spike rushed in, stake at the ready. Alec was right behind him.

But this opponent, unlike the others, was smarter, stronger than the others. He knocked Alec out of the way easily, to the floor and as Alec pushed himself up, he saw Max move in, her body blurring as she pushed the Vampire back.

Spike was circling, appearing to wait for his moment. Alec clambered to his feet, ready to enter the fray but something, Spike shaking his head, he made himself hold back. Finally Max landed a blow that had the creep reeling away. Spike moved in upon him, taking his turn to exchange blows. Alec was only a little dismayed when his apparent ally lost his stake with a well placed kick from the dark haired figure. He still had his own though. But when Spike was caught in a headlock and for some asinine reason, Max was fiddling with her hair-do, Alec decided that enough was enough. He rushed the Vampire, taking in and realizing that he had known for a good part of the evening, what he was seeing now, as their inhuman faces came to the fore, like the Vampires of earlier, that Spike was one of them too.

The kick that Vladdie boy leveled at him, Alec was able to duck. And he heard dimly Max's admonishment to duck. He dropped to all fours and caught sight of her in the corner of his eye, pulling a slim implement from her up swept hair and launching it at the Vampire. He turned his head to watch the deadly impact, just as Spike slipped backwards, out of the grip he was in. Blood boy watched as well, glancing down at the silver pin sticking out of his chest and then back up at Max. He laughed, harshly and cruelly as he glared at the lone female in the room.

“Stupid Slayer,” he growled. “You know metal will not stop me.”

“Never said I was a Slayer,” Max smirked and before Alec could question, the Vampire foe stiffened in surprise and then spun around. Alec could see where Spike had attempted to stake him through the back, but apparently the implement hadn't gone in deep enough to reach the heart.

He felt the rush of air as Max blurred forward, her foot barely touching off his back and he arched instinctively, adding boost to her flight. He watched as she landed a solid jumping side kick, her foot connecting with the stake with precision that put Hollywood to shame.

There was a moment of silence as the shock of the accomplishment took them all and then Spike's voice sounded out.

“Down!”

Alec, already on the floor moved instinctively again, covering Max as she dropped to her stomach. He might not have had experience with exploding reanimated bodies, but enough with live ordinances that he knew the drill. He was able to peek, as he saw the others doing, watching what was happening. There was a strange expanding and contracting before the Vamp, unlike the others before, actually exploded. Body disintegrated to skeletal remains and then shrinking minutely before it blew out, the bones dusting as they flew overhead to rain down upon them. The heat settled quickly to cool again and Alec, over Max, shook himself slightly before cautiously rising up all the way. He looked down to see Max roll over, her eyes searching until she found the blond Vampire.

Any sense of achievement, of victory, crashed down around his ears when she jumped to her feet and launched herself at the Brit, squealing like a little girl.

“We did it Spike!” she cheered. “I can't believe we got the bastard.”

“Right we did luv,” he answered back, hugging her tightly to him. But the smirk, seemed to be for Alec alone.

*****

Sitting now, two hours later in the back room at Crash, Alec could still hardly believe the evenings events. Max and Spike had finally deigned to explain things to him. And after walking him through Vampires and demons and the Slayers that fought them, fantastical tales of Spike winning his soul back to atone for his demon's sins, and he still didn't quite get why it was Spike's soul's fault what a demon did in his body, Alec was mindful of only one thing really.

And that was the fact that even after he had explained, and Spike had backed him up, that Alec had come of his own volition to protect her, Max was still ascribing the win almost solely to her bleached blond wonder. And the smarmy bastard, who as it turned out, really was British, was eating it up with a fork and a spoon.

Alec glanced up as there was another laugh, another cheer.

And then she was walking towards him, a happy smile on her face. He couldn't help it as he straightened up, appreciating, even if it wasn't he that put that look in her eyes, the beauty of the simple picture she made. She was fairly glowing at their accomplishment. And, Alec decided, why shouldn't she be? Even if he totally blamed Logan Cale for turning her life upside down when he got her involved in his moralistic crusade, he knew deep down that Max would always try to help the people she cared about.

Like that girl Lena, that she had been impersonating? When Spike had explained that most Vampires avoided the Slayer like poison, which, given the givens that it was her job to eradicate their numbers, there were a few older Vampires that sought the Slayer out. Apparently her blood was an aphrodisiac. Alec wasn't sure he wanted to know how exactly Spike knew that or if it was just rumor. But apparently Dracula had been around a while and made it a point of searching out the few Slayers that he deemed acceptable and trying to turn them. None were sure if it were possible to turn a Slayer, because no Vampire had been able to do so, the lure of all that blood too great. And as Spike had also explained, with her life in constant danger, doing a job that couldn't be acknowledged and shared by the majority of the known world, they usually ended up developing a death wish and would just have that one tiny moment where they gave up. And if a Vampire happened to get lucky... he had trailed off then and walked off, leaving Alec to draw his own conclusions.

Apparently this Lena girl stood out from the pack and he still didn't have a clear idea of why they had talked so much of a singular Slayer and then the group. But still, this Lena was making a name for herself in the community and it was she that Dracula wanted. So, not knowing what she looked like, Spike had rolled into town and gotten the girl out of there before running into Max. When he had told Max what had been about to go down, the blasted female had come up with this half assed plan with herself as the bait. That was what they had been spending their nights doing. Hunting, slaying, setting Max up as what Spike had originally mistaken her for when she was younger. A Slayer.

Alec knew that if he had had any idea what Max had been getting into, he would have protested, long and loud and had about as much effect as anyone else trying to keep the girl safe. He was just relieved that after all, he had been there, even if he'd had no idea what the hell was truly going down.

“So what are you doing sitting over here by your lonesome?” she asked as she leaned against the bar, eschewing the bar stools that were empty on either side of him.

“Huh,” Alec grunted as he avoided her questioning gaze.

“Seriously,” Max continued, an odd little light gleaming in her eyes. “We've just scored a major coup and you're over here doin' what? Moping over something? What happened? Couldn't use the story to get your latest blond bimbo home and into your bed? Too busy trying to figure out how to spin this to your best advantage to come and actually spend time with your friends?” she taunted rapidly. Alec, bristling at all of it, turned his head to hiss at her.

“You're joking if you think that bleached wonder is a friend of mine!” he snapped. Max's eyes widened as she leaned back from the vehemence in his tone.

“Probably true,” she nodded. “Spike does have standards, after all. Not particularly high. But you'll have to do a lot more to prove yourself to him.”

“Pr-prove myself?” Alec stammered at the insult. “Seriously?” he unconsciously echoed her earlier question, though the inflection behind it was a little more strained than hers. “I follow you, protect your back, help you out, am always there whenever you need a partner in crime, protect our fellow... friends, or any time ol' Logie needs something. I watch over you to make sure your fucking harebrained schemes don't go south and when they do, I pull your ashes out of the fire!”

“You know,” Max grinned, “I think you've got us backwards. For the most part anyways.”

“Jesus Max!” Alec used the old epithet, because at the moment, it did sort of feel like he'd need divine intervention to get her to open her eyes. She had pretty much traded hero worship from a gorp to a git. True, Spike had that whole danger angle going, being what he was, but still... “You're telling me that you trust someone who admits to being recently evil and I'm not talking scheming and plotting, but actually out there murdering these fuckin' ordinaries you were so hell bent on treating with kid gloves, over someone who's... What the hell does Spike have...?” he began to demand, but caught himself. He stared at her, shoulders heaving with the force of his exhortions as she stared at him.

Max's face slowly began to lighten and then her lips curled up into a tiny smiled. “Alec? Are you jealous of Spike?”

“Jealous?” he demanded sharply, a little hollowly. Because yes, he could admit to himself. He was jealous as all hell over the other male that had taken Max away from him. Not that he'd admit it to her, or anyone else for that matter. “What the hell does he have for me to be jealous of? There's nothing about the creep that I can't do myself, except for the obvious. And that's just plain nasty.”

“You are!” Max crowed, poking at his chest as he had turned to face her. “This is hilarious. Come on Alec, no one is saying you didn't help out a little tonight. But Spike has been doing this, saving people almost longer than we've been alive.”

“So that makes him a friggin' Saint I suppose, huh?” Alec snarled. Max tilted her head, annoyingly calm in the face of his turbulent, almost uncontrollable emotions.

“I don't think he's Catholic,” she murmured. “And there is the whole undead issue. I think Saints actually have to stay dead to be canonized.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Alec demanded. “Spike, Spike, Spike. It's all about friggin' Spike! You know he's not gonna be here come morning. He got what he wanted,” he spat out, glaring up and down at her, his words and venom making clear what innuendo he was trying to make. “So why the hell should he stick around?” But still, Max looked mightily amused.

“You know, you sound just like Angel,” she chuckled. Alec's eyes went wide. Now she was comparing him to another fucking Vampire! And one that was according to Spike, a complete ponce. Whatever the hell it was. And a poofter, which was slang that Alec had understood, especially when Fast Eddie, the Steel head he'd tangled with months ago had called him one. Even as he stood in dumbfounded, momentary speechlessness, Max had been assessing something and then nodded her head.

“And you're right,” she continued. “Spike'll probably head out soon. So I should spend as much time with him as possible-!” She had begun to move around him, but Alec, sensing that it was now or fucking never, had reached out and latched on to her wrist. She only got a few steps away from him, before he had yanked her back.

The moment was perfect, from a certain point of view. Max stumbled only a little before Alec caught her up in his arms. Her face came up to look at him, most likely to level him with her usual arsenals of glares, vituperous slander and physical chastisement, but Alec was too quick for her, sliding one hand around her neck and up into her hair, angling her face as his descended to hers. His grip on her wrist never faltered until his lips were pressed against hers, hard and unyielding at first. Until she gasped, her mouth opening under his. He would have immediately pulled away, but she had yanked her hand from his grip, only to fist both appendages in his shirt to pull him closer. And with relief, exultation and the ever consuming desire that was hers alone, he caught her hips and pulled her into him. She met his kiss this time, heated, tongues dueling, fingers clasping convulsively as the dust settled and the matter was apparently dealt with once and for all to their satisfaction.

Except for one tiny little matter.

Max pulled back to look up into his eyes, amusement still lighting them to sparkle under the questionable luminence of the bar. “You were jealous,” she murmured with conviction.

“Well, yeah,” Alec could at last admit, now that it seemed that she was finally his. There was a rightness that was so true, so pure that he knew she'd have to be deaf, blind, mute and pretty much dead not to feel in just the preliminary coming together they'd had.

“Jeez Alec,” she chuckled, her hands having relaxed on his shirt, were now unconsciously soothing it. “You know what you have that all those others, Spike, Logan, Angel? What they don't have?”

“What's that?” he asked softly, hesitantly.

“Me,” she sighed and lifted her chin to press a gentle kiss up his cheek before whispering into his ear. “Just took you forever to come and claim me.” The giggle tickled, but not as much as the realization that for all of his posturing and declaiming, well hell, she had been doing the exact same thing. Alec threw his head back and let the laugh that was building in his chest loose. He finally, as he was sure Max was as well, became aware of the cat calls and cheers around them, as well as the amused taunts about their public courtship and as well as that, many declarations that it was finally happening. That's about how he felt.

He lowered his gaze to her face once more as his laughter died down. “You know, you always had me Maxie. But I thought you were all female power. Why-?” Before he could finish the question, she was shrugging one shoulder, looking a little sheepish.

“And how would that have separated me from the rest of the pack slathering to be where I am right now?” she asked archly. Alec thought on that for a moment before a grin curved his lips even wider.

“You were just bein' all girly and makin' me do the work, weren't you?” he teased. She raised one eyebrow.

“Work?” she scoffed. “Do you know how hard some of those scenes were to set up? Cindy cut her hand breaking that window across the way, you know!”

Alec went completely still as the realization flooded over him, realizing that when he had burst into their aparment earlier, Cindy had been sporting a bright white, wide bandage on her left hand. And then the laughter could not be contained once more. He framed her face in his hands as she stared up at him, sharing his amusement. “Fuck, I think I absolutely love you.”

“Well it's a good thing I love you too, you moron.”

*****

“Finally!” Biggs exploded as he watched over the crowd, as his best friend finally won the day, claiming the girl that he'd been pretty much in love with since the moment she had kicked him to the wall, back in Manticore.

“Gotta say,” the blond beside him chuckled, “I thought he'd break much sooner.” Biggs, not bothering to hide his smirk, chuckled.

“Obviously you don't know how stubborn X5's are when you put them together,” he pointed out, knowing he had no fear of Spike spilling secrets.

“Well, seeing's how I only had the experience of lil Maxie until I ran into your lot,” Spike shrugged as he drained the last of the mug of beer he held. He didn't bother finishing his sentence.

“You know,” Biggs sighed expansively, sensing the melancholy in the Vampire with a soul, “Shanna was gonna die anyway.”

“Don't know that,” Spike frowned. “Not for sure. And in the old days, it wouldn't have bothered me a bit. I'm just glad you got to me before I could do any more damage.”

“Yeah,” Biggs grimaced, “still not sure that I get that.”

“You've never been without a soul boy,” Spike sighed as the mug dangled from his forefingers. “Humans killing humans been going on since, well, there've been humans. But being stuck back inside where the demon resided for... it takes a toll. An' I had no clue 'bout them transhumans. Raw fuckin' deal if you ask me.”

“Don't blame yourself,” Biggs tried for a smile, but both males knew it was just a facade. “We've dealt with worse, we're gonna deal with worse. We just gotta,” his eyes grew soft as he watched Alec nuzzling along Max's nose and the woman that he'd not had the chance to really get to know, respond with a happy giggle, throwing her arms around his friend. “We just gotta,” he repeated, “take whatever opportunities for happiness when we can.”

“Amen to that,” Spike sighed and with a clap on Biggs' shoulder, turned away. “And on that note, I'm over the whole maudlin bit. You got my numbers.”

It wasn't a question, but Biggs treated it as such. He nodded to Spike, remembering with startling clarity of the first time they'd met. Spike had been set to kill a transhuman that Biggs had tried to save from an unknown group of anti transgenics that he came to understand later, were Familiars, or at least the government group they were infiltrating that week. He'd managed the kill before Biggs had been able to stop him. Luckily he had stopped to listen to Biggs prove that the others were not demons, like Spike had assumed. When they had managed to get the rest of the group clear, Biggs had asked Spike why he had believed Biggs so easily. Spike had responded that he'd known another revved up kid. When he had revealed Max's designation, Biggs had recognized it as one of the oh niner's that had escaped. Spike had traded numbers with Biggs, letting him know that if he was in the area and they had a problem, to call him.

And after his time observing Alec mooning over Max and Max mooning over her ordinary, he'd known exactly how Spike could pay him back. And surprisingly, Spike had picked it up the very first night he'd spent observing Max and her shadow, without ever having talked to Biggs.The first that Biggs even knew that Spike was in town was when he had walked in behind them that first night at Crash. Danger to Max aside, it had all gone swimmingly and Biggs was wondering if he should go ahead and let the truth slip. Not like he needed the accolades, but a little appreciation was nice.

“Oi!”

He glanced over his shoulder and saw that Spike had paused at the bottom of the steps leading to the exit. He grinned and waited, his focus on the formerly evil undead.

“I come around this way anytime soon and find out they've got a kid named Liam, or anything pansy like that?” he declared and Biggs nodded, waiting. “Just remind soldier boy there what I said about his lucky charms.”

Biggs shook his head, not sure he wanted to know and with a slight shake to his shoulders as Spike laughed at his own joke, he watched the peroxide blond disappear into the night. Content that all was well, at least for the moment, Biggs turned back to watch the celebration of vanquishing the bad guy that had turned into something so much more.

Sometimes a little jealousy was a good thing.

AtZ- Kiss