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Three days after Alec's city council debut, and his subsequent hit-and-run accident, the X5 was healing nicely and already back to work, bustling around the TC Mall, checking sales, encouraging the artists-in-residence, and making sure inventory was good. He even managed to score several pounds of high grade coffee beans for Gem.

However, the disease they'd noticed in the hospital was spreading.

Deaths now numbered in the thousands worldwide, with the first cases reported in Seattle -- the people they'd seen at County General -- over the past weekend. Max knew her suspicions about the source of the pathogen might be false. However, she wasn't willing to take that chance, not when the fate of the human race hung in the balance.

Dr. Samuel Carr, Logan's physician and a friend to the transgenics, took the blood sample. He had a colleague who worked at the CDC. If the disease was caused by the comet, its effects just taking a bit longer to surface than the Familiars thought it would, then her blood was theoretically the cure. A detailed analysis would be run, and if results were as expected, work on a vaccine could begin. Still, it would take weeks to produce enough of the antigen for the world's population. And in the meantime, people were going to keep dying -- maybe even people Max loved.

Logan, of course, was safe. He'd had two blood transfusions from her already and should be able to easily fight off the virus or pathogen or whatever it was. Max's next thought was for Original Cindy. No way was she going to make her human "sister" wait for a theoretical vaccine.

"You're crazy, girl," O.C. said when Max showed up at her old apartment with needles and a transfusion line. However, O.C. trusted her "Boo," and let Max infuse her with the transgenic blood that would probably save her life.

And then there was Sketchy ... He took a little more convincing, what with his fear of needles and all, but in the end Max scared him so badly he gave in. When they were done, O.C. had to call Logan to come get his girl. After two transfusions, Max was pale, and near fainting from blood loss.

"You can't do this any more," Logan scolded her in the car on the way back to his apartment. "You can't single-handedly save the world any more than you already have. The CDC will make a vaccine, Max. Millions will live because of you. I know you love your friends, and don't want them to have to wait. But killing yourself isn't an option either. What good will you be to anyone if you're dead?"

Max, barely conscious, was in no condition to argue with that logic. However, she was still glad she'd done what she'd done -- saved O.C. and Sketchy. There were others, of course -- her friends and colleagues at Jam Pony ... even Normal ... But like Logan said, she couldn't save everyone.

"I want your word, Max," Logan insisted when he'd gotten her home and settled in bed. "I want you to promise me that you won't give your blood to anyone else."

"I promise," Max said sleepily, just before drifting off to sleep in his arms.

*****

The disease continued to spread through the city, the hospitals filled to overflowing with patients who really couldn't be helped. The symptoms started like the flu -- fever, headache, joint pain, sore throat -- followed by lung infection. The alveoli, the small air sacks in the lungs, were the real target of the pathogen. Infected and filled with pus, they ruptured and bled, causing the victim to drown in his own fluids. It wasn't a pretty way to die.

And then the transgenics began to get sick. A few at first -- Luke, a couple of X5's ... When Gem's little girl, Eve, came down with a fever there was great concern. Sandeman had supposedly made the transgenics capable of surviving the pathogen. But was the immunity genetic, or even universal? Could it be passed to another generation? Why were some sicker than others? Why were some of the mutants even dying?

Then Joshua complained of a sore throat, and Max began to panic. So far, most of the transgenics and transhumans had gotten very ill, but had still recovered. Most -- but not all. Two X5's had died, as well as an X3, and one nomalie. However, dozens more were now on their way to recovery, including Gem's baby. Apparently Sandeman had succeeded in his endeavor. The Freak Nation colony was going to survive, even if the human race didn't.

Three more weeks until a vaccine was ready ...

Max was incredibly busy, tending to Terminal City business, assuming duties the sick transgenics couldn't perform, making certain all of those down with the illness were being taken care of ... She looked in on Joshua at least three times a day. At first, she'd wanted to bring him to Logan's where he could be tended more easily, but Joshua refused, saying he wanted to stay with his own kind in TC, that he was more comfortable there, and that Alec could take care of him.

Max was skeptical. No way would self-centered Alec be a good nurse for Joshua. However, every time she dropped by the room the two friends shared, Alec was there -- putting a cool cloth on Joshua's feverish forehead, covering the big guy with another blanket when he was shivering with cold, heating chicken soup on a hot plate ...

"I've got it, Max," Alec said quietly, his hazel eyes dark with weariness and worry. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, or changed his clothes (the grey t-shirt and jeans the same she remembered him wearing last Thursday), or even shaved. The week old stubble of a dark blonde mustache and beard shadowing his handsome face made him look almost like a different person, older somehow ... more responsible even?

"You need to sleep," Max said, not unsympathetically. She offered a wry smile. "With so many down right now, the last thing I need is for you to get sick too."

"I'm all right, Max," Alec said, summoning a cocky smile. "Don't worry about Josh and me. You've got enough on your mind already."

"Have you heard from your supplier about those canned goods?" she asked.

Alec glanced over at the table where his cell phone lay. "No," he said, frowning. "He was supposed to call last night. When I dialed his number I got voice mail."

"What happens if your middle man is down with the virus?"

Alec sighed heavily and scratched his head. "Then I go down to the warehouse district and make noise until I find his source, then deal with whoever that is directly." He looked over at Joshua, lying on a mattress in the corner. "I know we're runnin' low on food, Max, but so is everyone else in Seattle. Everything's shut down -- manufacturing, transportation ... the harbor's quarantined, no ships in or out, although you and I know that's not how this bug is passed along. The police are so short-handed it's a looter's paradise out there. We're only safe in here because everyone's so afraid of us." He smiled at the irony of that. "And here you've spent all this time tryin' to make us transgenics out to be peaceful, law abidin' citizens."

"I guess we are better off than most," Max admitted. She gestured at Joshua, "And our bodies can hopefully fight it off."

"How's Logan holdin' up?"

"Logan's fine," she said, although she'd been so busy with Terminal City problems she'd hardly seen him in the past three days. She looked at Joshua again, her brown eyes deeply worried. "We lost another one yesterday," she said quietly. "An X5, guy named 'Sherman'."

"Another X5?" Alec said, eyebrows raised. He rubbed a thumb along the stubble of his jaw line. "That's four X5's dead, Max. You think it's just coincidence, or is there somethin' there to worry about?"

Max shrugged. "How the hell should I know? Most of us are recovering, including the X5's." She looked at him more closely. "How are you feeling?"

"Gee, Max," Alec said dryly. "So nice of you to ask."

"Just making conversation, Alec," she replied snidely, miffed at his snarky tone. But he really did look like something the cat dragged in, his regular work duties and taking care of Joshua, not to mention the worry he had to be feeling about his best friend, taking their toll.

Joshua stirred on the mattress, opened his eyes, and smiled wanly at Max.

"Hey, big fella," she said, dropping to her knees beside the bed. She put a hand on his forehead and looked back at Alec. "His fever's broken."

"Joshua's hungry," the dog man said. He coughed, sniffed, and looked toward the room's makeshift kitchen.

"Chicken soup, comin' up," Alec said, a warm smile lighting up his handsome face.

"I'll leave you two alone," Max said, seeing she wasn't needed.

But Alec stopped her at the door, his hand on her arm. He glanced back at Joshua, then said in a very low voice, "Not that it matters to anyone, but since you asked, I've got a sore throat."

Max's stomach did a back flip, and her hand went to his forehead. "You have a fever too," she said.

Alec shrugged. "Oh well. Guess it's my turn. Let's hope the DNA Sandeman put in my cocktail is up to the job."

*****

Max told herself that Alec could take care of himself. She wasn't concerned about him. But she still lay awake the next night, in bed beside Logan, staring at the ceiling. Damn it, she didn't want to think about him! How typical of Alec to make her worry!

Joshua had gotten back on his feet quickly, left now with only a residual cough and a runny nose. However, as fast as the dog man had recovered, Alec had sickened, by that evening curled up in his own bed, alternately chilling and sweating with a rapidly rising fever.

Busy with Terminal City business the next day, Max didn't have time to look in on the X5. Joshua would take care of Alec, she assured herself.

"How's Alec doing?" Logan asked that evening as they sat down to dinner together.

Max shrugged and looked away. "Wouldn't know."

"Didn't you check on him?" Logan asked, his surprise evident. "Max, whether you admit it to yourself or not, Alec's important to Terminal City. Technically, he's the leader here."

"I don't like to think about how 'important' Alec is," Max said wearily. "I don't trust him, Logan. Even after all this time. And quite frankly, I don't think I ever will. If he dies ... if his DNA isn't up to par ..." She hesitated, then said it. "Maybe it will be for the better in the long run."

Her words shocked Logan. "It's more likely Alec's this sick because breathed enough gasoline fumes to kill three ordinary men not that long ago," Logan chided her, "not to mention recently punctured a lung. His body's been under a lot of stress. Look, Max. Alec might not be my best friend, and God knows he screws up occasionally, but he's also done an awful lot for you over the past two years -- put his life on the line for us more than once in fact. Don't you think he's made up for any past transgressions? Or will you never be able to get past the fact he's alive and Ben isn't?"

Logan's words hit home, and Max hung her head. "I'm sorry," she said in a low voice. "But sometimes when I look at Alec, all I can think about is how unfair it is that he's happy and free while Ben, the one who really deserved a life like this, is rotting in the ground somewhere."

"You don't think Alec deserves his life?" Logan asked. "Why? Because he didn't escape from Manticore like you and Ben did? Because he was trapped there and grew up twisted and supposedly amoral? Max, you've got to admit, that even though Alec did some pretty bad things while under Manticore's thumb, he certainly never liked his job. Ben was the true killer, Max. Not Alec."

"Ben only became a killer because Manticore warped him so badly," Max said angrily, getting up from the table and beginning to pace. "What I don't understand is why Alec survived all the abuse with his soul intact, but Ben didn't? Can you tell me that, Logan? Why? It just isn't fair! So often, when I look at Alec, I see the man Ben should have had the chance to become."

"You mean brave, loyal, caring, and good with the ladies?" Logan replied levelly. "Max, Alec isn't Ben and Ben could never have been like Alec. They might be genetic twins, but they're two separate people. Ben would probably have had mental problems no matter how nurtured he was during his formative years -- and Alec would probably have stayed sane even if forced to endure more than he already did at Manticore."

"I know," Max said huskily. "But sometimes I still wish Alec wasn't in my life -- that I'd never met him. You have no idea how I feel when I look at him, Logan. He makes me--"

An urgent knock on the basement door interrupted her. It was Joshua, looking a bit pale from his recent illness, but otherwise firm on his feet.

"What is it?" Max asked, peering behind him down the stairs into the darkness to see if he was alone.

"It's Alec," Joshua said. "Max, he's really, really bad. He's having trouble breathing." He grabbed her wrist. "You have to come now. Help him. Your blood can make Alec all right."

Max jerked away, backing up, her brown eyes wide. "Joshua," she said, "I can't. I can't help Alec. He's got to beat this on his own."

"Max," Joshua said, as if speaking to a small child. "You don't understand. Alec could die."

Max looked back at Logan. "I know," she said. "But I didn't help the other transgenics who got sick and died, big fella. How can I justify helping Alec now?"

Joshua looked with frustration at Logan, balling his big hands into fists. "Because it's Alec!" he wailed, as if that was explanation enough. Then, seeing she didn't understand, he added, "Alec's family. More than all the others. He's my brother. My friend. Your friend! He's part of the inner circle!" He grabbed her arm again, frantic, pulling her toward the stairs. "Come now!" he demanded.

Once again, Max jerked away and backed up, standing beside Logan, her face sorrowful. "I know you love him, Joshua," she said. "But--

"Max loves Alec too!"

Not really, a little voice spoke in her head. A minute ago you were angry at the guy for daring to exist. Maybe your wish for pretty boy to be out of your life for good is going to be granted.

"Max?" When Joshua got nothing in return but a blank stare, he turned desperately to Logan. "Please?" he cried, wringing his hands.

"I could get Sam Carr," Logan said calmly, apparently the only sane one in the room. "He might be able to do something."

"We didn't get a doctor for the others," Max said coldly. She looked up at Joshua one last time. "I'm sorry, big fella. Alec's on his own." And then she closed the door in his face.

*****

Joshua didn't hear her when she entered the room he and Alec shared -- didn't hear her because his sobs drowned out the sound of her approach.

Alec was lying on the mattress he used a bed. Naked except for a pair of boxers, his body was covered with sweat -- but his limbs were trembling. Whether it was a fever chill or a seizure Max couldn't tell. Eyes closed, his breathing incredibly labored, his unconsciousness feigned sleep.

The dog man was kneeling on the floor, his big arms enfolding Alec in an embrace, his shaggy maned head buried against the X5's chest, sobbing.

Hot tears rose in Max's throat at the sight. How could she have been so cruel earlier? How could she have said those things about Alec? The sight now of the young transgenic, so sick and helpless, made her heart ache. Logan was on target. She had no right to wish that the life of this man belonged to Ben instead of its true owner. She had no right to wish that Alec was dead. Even beyond the point that 494's contribution to Terminal City was probably irreplaceable (no other X5 in the colony came close to having Alec's savvy street smarts, charisma, and independent ways), she knew now that if she never again saw those laughing hazel-green eyes, or that mischievous grin ... never heard his smart alec remarks or his blunt assessments of her actions ... it would be a terrible loss in her life.

Do I love this man? Max asked herself. Does the fact that if he dies part of me will die with him mean anything? She couldn't answer those questions ... didn't want to.

But she did know that she wasn't going to lose another brother ... another friend.

"Joshua," she called softly. "Help me with this." Max held up the transfusion line and the needles.

The big guy looked up, disbelief in his blue eyes followed by a flood of happiness. "You came!" he cried out. "You'll save Alec?"

"I'll save Alec," Max said firmly. Because if I don't, then for the rest of my life I'll miss him, and all the possibilities will be gone.

While he lay on the very brink of death, each breath perhaps his last, Alec's mind drifted in its delirium through a world where the only woman he could ever love shared his life, his dreams, and his bed -- where Logan didn't exist and Max was his. And, as Max's life giving blood flowed into his veins, his lips twitched in the smallest of smiles.