The meaning of the runes

By Sinful Starlet

Disclaimer: everybody! "Not mine, never will be, wish it was, etc etc"!

Rating: PG-13 / R - I'll warn in advance of any rating changes

Summary: Alternate take on events around and following 'Love Amongst the Runes' - certain aspects of the storylines around that time really bugged me! Basically Max discovers the runes, but they aren't quite as unique as she thought. What do they mean and what will that revelation mean to her and the ones she loves?

Author's note: Okay, I know I'm evil - I'm like a third of the way into 'Max and Alec and another locked room' but I got this idea into my head and it is flatly refusing to go away until I write it down! It's kinda therapeutic anyway - allowing me to fix some things that really hacked me off about the end of series 2 and build on my whole M/A repertoire. Don't think I've seen this done yet either - although it probably has been. All I'm saying is - Max's not the only one who gets the runes - read into that what you will! Hope ya like it anyway! *SS*

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The meaning of the runes

By Sinful Starlet

Intro

(sorry just side note here - how come so many of my stories start with Max waking up in the morning?! - only just realised that! *SS*)

Max groaned as she got up that morning. She hadn't slept at all well the night before. Not that she usually slept more than a few hours a night but last night her sleep had been particularly disturbed. There had just been way too much going on this week. Well basically, things had been going downhill ever since Logan had seen Max and Alec together that morning outside her apartment. Even now, the words of her lie were still ringing in her head. Part of her just couldn't believe she'd actually done it, while the more rational part of her was still trying to convince her that it was for the best - that she was doing it for Logan's safety.

It would have been so much easier without the added complication of Alec she decided. It had been bad enough lying to Logan - saying that she was seeing Alec, but having to explain it all to Alec had been a torture she wasn't expecting. Thinking about it now, she wasn't sure what reaction she'd been expecting, but him being upset with her hadn't been it. Laughter, some kind of sarcastic wise-crack, anything typically Alec, but instead he'd just looked her, and there was real hurt in his eyes, which got to her more than she would have thought possible.

They had argued of course, she had at least expected that much, and then he went off to see Logan, all ready to tell him the whole truth about her dumb lie. But he hadn't, which had thrown her all over again. After everything that he had said, he had gone along with it for her sake, because she had asked him to. This had certainly surprised her, but at the time she was just grateful - alleviating part of her guilt about the lie, even if it was only a small part.

Max realised then that she had never really given him enough credit - been too quick to criticise everything he did, though she was right to a lot of the time. She had to admit that there was a lot more to Alec than she had let herself think at first, his agreement to go along with this plan of hers proved that, though not as much as the look in his eyes when he first heard about her lie. She had only ever seen him look like that once before - and that was when he was with Rachel. She didn't know what that meant, but she didn't get the chance to think about it just then as she felt Alec take her hand, gently trying to re-focus her attention on their conversation.

That was when she first saw them. The runes. The small grouping on her right wrist, coming into focus from somewhere deep inside her. They were back at Terminal City in less than half an hour, calling up Logan on the vid link and getting him to look at them. It had unsettled her a lot more than she wanted to admit at the time, but Logan had said he would look into it, though not before an extremely awkward moment between the new triangle. She had eventually gone to sleep that night, realising there was nothing else she could do about the runes that night. She got a fairly sharp shock the next morning though as she walked past the mirror.

1

"Oh my god", she breathed as she stood in front of the tarnished old mirror. The runes had spread during the night, in fact 'spread' was probably an understatement. There were now small groups leading up both of her arms, across her chest and stomach, and as she contorted herself in front of the mirror she saw more groupings all over her back. She quickly checked herself over thoroughly, but apart from a couple of isolated groupings on her ankles and feet, the rest of the runes stopped just below her waist.

They weren't hurting her in any way, physically she felt fine, but there was clearly something less than normal about them, but that did kind of pose the question of what was she going to do about them. The night before she had got Logan pictures of the runes by standing in front of Alec while he held the camera over the groupings on her right arm, but this was different. In order to get pictures of all of the runes, she would have to remove rather a lot of clothing, and she certainly wasn't going to do that in the middle of the command centre at TC.

She obviously did need to get some pictures of them though, and this wasn't exactly something she could do by herself. So who was she supposed to call? Original Cindy, CeCe? Obviously she couldn't call Logan, there was no way he'd be able to get close enough to her to take the pictures without her re-infecting him, and she also wasn't exactly keen on the idea of stripping off in front of him, less than a week after they had 'broken up'. Which meant what? She hesitated but then she did reach for her cell phone and dial the number………… "Hey it's me, listen can you come over……as soon as possible I guess……oh, and see if you can get hold of a camera on your way - I'll explain later". She hung up then, not knowing what else to say, just heading for the bathroom to get ready.

*

Half an hour later, the knock on her door came and she got up to answer it, standing aside to let him in. "Hey Max", he said, stepping into her 'living room' - if you could really call it that, "so I uh, I managed to get a camera off Dix - apparently it turned up in a salvage run couple days ago". "Thanks", Max said, sounding as uneasy in her voice as he had, "for coming I mean, I know this is a little weird".

"Sure", Alec said, eventually taking a seat in one of the arm chairs she had found for this place, "but um, what exactly is weird? I mean you weren't too specific over the phone". Max cursed inwardly, of course she hadn't told him why he was here yet. "Right, well, I needed to show you something", she said, starting to unbutton her shirt. "Woah, hey Max", Alec said, jumping up out of his seat again, "can't believe I'm actually gonna say this but - what are you doing?"

Max couldn't help but smile a little at that, it seemed that smart-Alec was never that far away. "Remember those runes we found last night?", she asked, stopping undoing her shirt for the time being. "Yeah?", Alec said, still sounding a little uneasy, though he stepped round the coffee table so he was standing opposite her as she went on. "Well, I woke up this morning and there were more", she said, avoiding his gaze, though she couldn't say exactly why.

"More?", Alec said, apparently a little slow on the uptake this morning. "More runes", Max said, looking back up at his face, "all over, but they're already starting to fade, so I figured I better get some pictures of them for Logan before they fade completely". "Right", Alec nodded, finishing her thought, "hence the camera?" "Well I guess I better leave you to it then", he went on, moving back towards the front door. "Alec, wait", Max said quickly, feeling a whole mess of emotions wash into her stomach as she forced herself to say the next few words, "it's just some of the runes are a little…inaccessible".

"Inaccessible?", he interrupted, not quite following. "To me", Max went on, feeling even more uneasy as she said, "meaning I wouldn't be able to photograph them all myself". The penny it seemed, had finally dropped as he looked at her with uncertain realisation on his face. "Which is why you asked me to come?" Max didn't answer right away, but she did eventually nod. It took Alec a while to come up with any kind of response to that, but it would be fair to say that if Max was feeling confused, it was nothing to the way Alec was feeling at that moment.

"Again, my asshole persona is hating me for saying this, but are you sure you don't want someone else to help you do this?", he said at last, fixing a half-smile on his face and seeing that expression mirrored on Max's own. "I only ask because I'm guessing it's a little more than your right arm that I'm gonna need to see - wouldn't you be more comfortable with someone like OC doing this?" Max smiled in spite of herself, pleasantly surprised by the concession he was making here. "Not practical", she said at last, "going to get her, bringing her back here? Not really an option, and anyway, who else is there? CeCe? Another female X5? Don't think I know any of them well enough for that, which leaves who? I mean, it's not like I can ask---".

She trailed off then, apparently neither of them were going to bring up that particular name. And Alec conceded she was right, Logan really wasn't a good idea on this, even without Max's lie about the two of them being together. Which left….. "Joshua?", he hazarded, though from the look on her face, he guessed that that wasn't really going to happen either. "I guess not!", he said, laughing awkwardly. "Look", Max said, cutting him off before he could say anything else and stepping forward, taking his hand in hers, "I know this is…well, way beyond the normal borders of awkwardness but I need your help here Alec".

Unfortunately, her holding his hand had pretty much destroyed his concentration so he reacted too late as she twisted his wrist and bent his arm up behind his back. He twinged with pain, but found he couldn't easily get out of the hold she had put him into. "Of course", Max said, in a disarmingly sweet tone, "if you tell Sketchy about this……I will have to kick your ass - again!" With those last few words she released him, and moved back to give him a little space. "Ok", he said after a few seconds passed, "if you're sure?" Max nodded, "But just remember--" "Duly noted!", Alec cut in, smiling back at her.

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Okay so that's chapter one - love it? hate it? I know I didn't really get very far into the story, but trust me, I am going somewhere with this! I hope you liked it anyway! I'll try and update soon. *SS*