DISCLAIMER: All DARK ANGEL characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee (Cameron Eglee Productions) and DARK ANGEL itself belongs to FOX.

ARCHIVE: No

Artwork courtesy of Valjean & JensenAckles.org

That bitch!

It was all Alec could think as he and Max quietly made their way downstairs in the hotel to the door that, according to Logan's blueprint of the building, led to the basement.

He'd spent the past few hours thinking hard about things ... Max ... himself ... his feelings ... He'd come clean with her the night before, laid bare his heart with those three little words. And what did he get for it? A dick tease!

She was playing with him, just like she played with all the guys she'd ever met. Only Alec -- X5-494 -- was supposed to be smarter than that. He was the one who was supposed to be doing the manipulating, not letting himself be led around by the balls by a little girl!

He was so angry at Max right now he could almost have turned around, kicked her down the stairs, and walked away from her forever. In fact, if he hadn't been on a job ... a mission ... he might have done just that.

"I'm sorry," Max said, obviously recognizing Alec's stony silence for what it was -- pure unadulterated anger of a kind she'd never witnessed in him before.

"That's usually my line," the X5 said lightly, as they reached the bottom of the stairs and found themselves in a vault-like cement room. There was a light bulb dangling on a string overhead and Alec reached up and switched it on. Not much to see ... a few empty cardboard boxes ... some smashed wooden crates, also empty ... a couple of broken chairs ... glass on the floor ...

"I shouldn't have done what I did up there," Max said. "It's just ... I'm being torn apart here, Alec. I want to love Logan ... to be with him forever ... but I also have feelings for you ... strong ones ...

"Max," Alec said quietly. "We need to talk about this later. Or, better yet, not." Asha's comment about being second choices suddenly sprang into the X5's mind and he looked back at his companion. "I'm not gonna be your fall back relationship, Max. I told you how I feel about you. The cards are on the table, but you're tryin' to play two different games. I will not be used by you, Max. And that's exactly what you were tryin' to do up there -- use me, and I don't mean that in an erotic sort of way. You were messin' with my mind ... stringin' me along because you can't bring yourself to make a decision. If you want Logan so bad, go to him ... be with him ... but be faithful. Your cheating on the man ain't pretty, Max, nor is it becoming to an X5."

"You've slept with more than one woman at a time on occasion without telling them about each other," Max argued. "What's wrong if I want to have two men in my life?"

Alec honestly didn't know whether to laugh or get even angrier at that comment. "What's wrong is that you told both of us you loved us!" he finally got out. "That's cheap, Max! Even I don't go that route, no matter how much I want to get under some female's skirt!"

"I do love both of you!" she shouted.

"Shhh," Alec admonished her, glancing up the stairs. It had appeared that everyone in the house was either unconscious or so wasted as to not care, but there could still be a guard of some kind.

"I can't pick one of you over the other," she continued in a lower tone of voice.

"Well, no one's askin' you to pick," Alec said nastily as he walked around the basement area looking at the floor. "I'm out of the game. Go back to Logan and forget about me."

"I can't."

He turned and looked at her. "You'll forget me," he said. "Once I'm gone."

"You're leaving?"

"I have a choice?"

"You can't leave!" Max practically wailed. "Terminal City needs you! Joshua needs you! The Art Mall needs you!"

He shrugged elaborately. Then suddenly, with an abruptness that caught even his transgenic senses by surprise, Max reached out, grabbed him by the shoulders, and kissed him hard on the lips.

For a second, Alec resisted, drawing back, but the feel of her trembling body pressed against his was impossible. Slowly -- as if of their own volition -- his hands came up and clasped her arms, drawing her even closer as he opened his mouth slightly, relaxing, accepting Max's offering. Lips gentle now, the tip of his tongue touched hers, her parted teeth letting him in, and suddenly he was devouring her, his grip on her tightening into a possessiveness so strong it was terrifying.

"I need you," she finally murmured against the light beard stubble of his chin as they both came up for air. "I need you so badly it hurts, Alec."

Which was the exact moment that the X5 knew he was fucked because -- like it or not -- he needed her too.