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

*****

"So," Alec panted as they raced lightly on foot through the woods bordering the small West Virginia town of Elkins -- a place were they'd gone to meet with Washington committeemen who'd promised amnesty for all so-called crimes committed by X5s while under Manticore's rule. "This'll teach us to go solo when we should've brought a Unit." He cocked an eyebrow at his companion as they both ducked under a fallen tree then resumed their measured, ground-eating pace. "But I've gotta admit," he added a moment later, "I sure didn't see this comin' -- the politicians decidin' that what was needed wasn't forgiveness, but annihilation."

"Maybe we shouldn't have run so quickly," Max said as she worked her way down an embankment to a small stream where they could hide their tracks and scent. "Maybe we should have stayed and talked."

"They weren't talkin', Max. They were shootin'. They wanted us dead."

"Maybe they just started shooting because they were afraid," she tried.

"Yeah, well tell that to the bullet hole in my back."

"You're shot?"

The dismay in her voice had made Alec pause and look down at her where she was slightly below him on the stream bank. "Yeah. I am. And for once it's not a shoulder wound."

She scrambled back up the hillside and grabbed hold of his arm, bringing him to a stop. "Where?" she snapped, her demanding eyes raking the length of his body.

Alec shrugged, then unzipped his jacket, pulled aside the material, and showed her the bloody wound in the back of his left side. The bullet had gone clear through, just below his last rib, and it hurt like hell. Blood was oozing over the waist band of his jeans, and he could feel it trickling down his leg.

Not good. Not good at all. And they both knew it.

"We've got to get that bleeding stopped," Max said, stating the obvious, and looking around the woods as if she expected to see a medic station. The sound of a chopper passing overhead made both X5s turn eyes skyward. The red and gold autumn tree canopy hid them for now, but quite honestly they had no idea where they were or where they might find safety.

"You're cold," Max said, seeing him shiver in the crisp air.

"I'm fine," Alec assured her. "Hurtin' like hell, but fine."

"That barn half a mile back ..." she said.

"The one crawlin' with soldiers that we passed?" Alec said. "Yeah, I thought of that too. Maybe we could double around, and when the bad guys move out we could at least have a place to hole up for the night out of the wind where we could think things through and I could stop bleeding."

She'd nodded her agreement.

*****

Jacket, t-shirt, and sweater off, the bare skin of his back, belly, and arms goose pimpling, Alec leaned hard against the barn's center support post, one hand on top of the other, his whole weight pressing on the wood. Bracing booted feet firmly on the dirt floor, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and forced himself to say two words. "Do it."

Max bit her lower lip, seemingly mesmerized by the bloody waistband of Alec's jeans as they rode low on lean hips. Sticky red was oozing in a slow but frighteningly steady trickle from both the entry and the exit points of the bullet wound in his side.

"This is gonna hurt," she warned, giving the knife blade in her hand a last few seconds in the flame of Alec's lighter.

"Just do it, Max!" Alec ordered, his voice low and dangerous. "I can't afford to lose any more juice. I'm already light headed."

"Doing it," Max said softly as she pressed the glowing tip of the blade against the hole in Alec's torso. There was a sizzling sound ... the stench of burning flesh ... The young transgenic closed his eyes, gripping the wooden post hard with both hands, muscles cording, teeth penetrating his lower lip as he tried to not cry out. But he couldn't help it. After several seconds of agony a small sob escaped from his throat.

"Almost half done," Max reassured him. Then, in a tone more tender than scathing -- "Don't be a sissy."

"I'm not a sissy!" the X5 grated as tears streamed from the corners of his eyes and his nose began to run. "But fuck, Max, it hurts like hell!"

"I know. I know ... There! One side done."

Alec relaxed against the post, his breath coming in shudders as the world alternately brightened and receded around him in rhythm to his pounding heart.

"I've still got to do the back," Max said softly as she re-heated the knife. This time the apology in her voice was unmistakable. No matter how tough she talked, she really did hate hurting him ... "Hold on."

With tears of pain wetting his face, only the leather of his jacket sleeve that Max thrust into his mouth kept Alec from screaming this time.

*****

He couldn't sleep. He hurt too bad -- even though the hay in the loft and the horse blankets they'd found meant he and Max were warm and dry ... sheltered from the icy November sleet coming down outside. Coughing deeply, for the first time Alec wondered if maybe that bullet had done more damage than he thought. Although the bleeding had been stopped by the cauterization, daggers shot through his diaphragm with every breath now, and there was the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

He'd managed to stay on his feet all day -- running -- his genetically enhanced muscles giving him stamina far beyond any human's. But even his great strength had its limits ...

*****

Her hand on his forehead felt good, stroking his hair back out of his eyes. The fact that it was Max -- his "nemesis" as he sometimes thought of her (especially when she thwarted one of his perfectly good money-making schemes) -- made the act seem more remarkable.

He wondered why she cared. But then Alec remembered how maternal 452 got whenever one of her family members was wounded or in pain. He supposed it was his turn this time around ...

He looked up into her eyes, so brimming with concern and something else. "Do I get a kiss to make my 'owie' feel better?" he half joked, then silently cursed himself for saying such a stupid thing. But her reaction surprised him.

Max's full lips twitched. "No," she said firmly, but without the animosity he'd come to expect from her.

"Why not?" Alec whined, shifting his weight in the hay to try and ease the throbbing in his side.

"Because I know better than to go there," Max replied levelly. "I'm not about to let the horse out of the barn, so to speak."

Alec found that an odd euphemism for her to use. "You mean you're afraid that if you kiss me, you'll find out I'm better at it than Logan?" The second the words were out of his mouth Alec wished he could call them back.

Her eyes darkened dangerously.

"I'm sorry, Max," he said quickly. "I didn't mean that. Hey, I'm probably delirious. Don't you think I've got a fever? I feel like I've got a fever."

"Mole thinks I should be sleeping with you instead of with Logan," she said suddenly. "Apparently so do a lot of others in TC. They have the ridiculous notion that you and me should be mates."

Alec stared at her, for the first time in hours the agony of his wound forgotten. "Mole says a lot of crap, especially when he's been drinking," he finally said carefully, watching those brown eyes as they hovered above his face. They were so close right now in the loft ... their bodies cuddled together for warmth ... her hand tangled in his hair ... If only--

--if only she wasn't in love with Logan, a man he considered a friend ... if only he wasn't all shot up and about to barf from the pain.

Apparently realizing how appalling what she'd just said sounded, Max quickly backtracked. "Hey," she said with a little laugh. "When I decide it's time to have babies, maybe I'll take a look your way -- genetic match and all. You up for stud service and payin' some child support? In the meantime, quit gettin' your ass shot up. I might need it some day."

"I'll try," Alec said, not knowing exactly how to act right now, Max's words had been so shocking. Hell, most of the time she barely tolerated his existence in Terminal City, except when she needed him for cannon fodder.

"Sleep," she said. "And heal. I'll keep watch." And then she curled up next to him in the hay, pulled the blankets over both of them, and cradled his head against her breast.

Amazingly, Alec did just that -- he slept. And in his dreams, Max wasn't in love with Logan ...

THE END