What Was There All Along

Disclaimer:I own nothing except anys OCs.

Set shortly after The Berrisford Agenda, typical Max goes into heat plot, kill me now, I can't believe I'm actually doing this but what the hell, its been hanging around my desktop for ages so I figured I'd post, see what people think. Give it a chance.

Was it just her of had someone turned the heat up in Crash tonight? Was the thought that Max seemed to keep coming back to as she sat laughing with OC and Sketchy, it was almost as if, …nah, she hadn't gone into heat for months. She figured Manticore had to have done something to 'fix' that little defect, besides, she may have been literally burning up, but she wasn't chasing after anything male with a pulse, and god knew there were some fine specimens at Crash tonight, if she was in heat, which she sure as hell wasn't, she wouldn't have been ignoring, say that latino hottie over there by the pool table, yet here she was, not giving him more than a cursory glance.

Though, Max had to admit that tonight, he really wasn't what she was looking for, sure he was cute, but he didn't have… something, that Max needed. 'He isn't an alpha', her subconscious whispered tauntingly. "Where the fuck did that come from?" pondered Max in exasperation, she couldn't deny that it was true, none of the guys in Crash really came up to her standards, but since when did she have standards in heat? And who exactly was she measuring them against? Not Logan, that was for sure, 'Couldn't exactly describe him as an 'alpha',' her treacherous mind supplied, to her growing horror, whatever the hell 'alpha' meant anyway, so who then, and why exactly was she subconsciously searching the crowd for barcodes… for one barcode in particular?

'The best potential mate isn't hear yet,' her subconscious supplied helpfully, once her scan of the surrounding males was complete, not a barcode in sight, and certainly no sign of the one she was looking for.

Max froze just as she was about to take another sip of beer, "OK what the fuck was that?" she panicked, realising exactly what she had just thought, and about who she had just thought it. Her mind sure was playing some weird ass freaky tricks on her tonight, no way would she ever think of Alec like that, she must have been going insane. That was it! She was most definitely loosing it if her mind was having thoughts like that about Alec, the screw up, the eternal thorn in her side, her Manticore breeding partner… "'Alpha' indeed, " she thought scathingly, "no way is Alec an 'alpha', and why do I care anyway?" she finished, panicking slightly at the direction her thoughts were once again taking, she didn't even like him!

Question was, why had Mantiore picked him as her breeding partner, was it becausethey were both screw ups, she knew now that he had only just gotten out of psy-ops after the whole fiasco with Ben when she first met him, so was that it? Or did Manticore have another reason for putting them together? Was she meant to be with Alec?

"OK its official the rational part of my brain has taken a vacation!" Max fumed, sighing with exasperation at her thoughts, where exactly had all this stuff with Alec come from, shouldn't she be thinking about Logan right now? She had to strongly curb the urge to smash her head on the table with frustration about the unfairness of her life, she might have had a little more respect for Alec and his past after the thing with Rachel but when exactly did he start invading her thoughts like this?

"You okay boo? Ya lookin' a little spun right now." OC questioned Max gently, apparently some of Max's confusion and frustration had bled onto her face, despite her best efforts to prevent it.

"I'm fine OC." replied Max, willing some cheerfulness into her voice to try and alleviate some of her friends concern, she sounded about as convincing as Alec and his ridiculous ascertation that he was 'always alright'.

"Yeah right," snorted OC derisively, "suga ya look like your burning up right about…", she suddenly stopped her tirade catching Max's eye, panic clear in her expression, clearly having just come to the same conclusion as Max. HEAT. "Shit." She muttered almost inaudibly, though Max, with her transgenic hearing heard her loud and clear, whilst Sketchy remained, as usual, oblivious, turning instead to get some more beer.

"So I'm not imagining it then." thought Max sullenly, "Well that's just great!" she fumed sarcastically, "Could my life get any worse!"

Apparently it could as at that moment Alec entered the bar. Max was facing the wrong direction to see his entrance, but she 'felt' it, though she wasn't sure what 'it' was, 'it' was an extra sensory awareness of something…someone? But what…she was brought back to reality swiftly by OCs next words, which had the proverbial effect of a bucket of ice water over the head.

"Honey you gotta get outta dodge right now." OC stated calmly, "Get back to the apartment, take a long cold shower and lock yourself up 'til this bitch is over. It's a wonder you ain't jumped any poor clueless male yet, god knows there are enough at Crash tonight!" she exclaimed.

Unwittingly OC had confirmed Max's earlier thoughts, why wasn't she trying to jump anything with a Y chromosome right now? It just didn't make any sense, usually in heat she couldn't stop herself, but this time she hadn't even had any sexy dreams, … well, that was debatable, she grudgingly admitted, she had had a fairly steamy dream about Alec last night, but that wasn't so unusual, and she was so deeply in denial about the whole thing that she was deliberately trying to repress the memory of all such dreams, (And God there were a lot of them!), writing them off as delusions of a sexually starved body which couldn't have what it really wanted, clearly, Logan, so was focusing its attention instead on the closest attainable male, it could just as easily have been Sketchy or Normal (Max shuddered, now that was a frightening prospect!), in fact it had gotten to the point where she was trying to avoid sleeping, even more than she usually did.

"I don't know what's going on OC," Max explained, confiding in her friend just how worried she was, "This completely snuck up on me, I only just realised, I mean," she clarified, "with how hot I'm feeling I'm well into it, but I haven't tried to jump anyone yet, what's going on?" Max asked in a tiny, slightly jumpy voice.

"I don't know suga, but we'll figure this bitch out." OC smiled, taking Max's hands, and trying to soothe the stressed out X5.

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Meanwhile at the bar, Sketchy had run into the newly arrived Alec on his beer run, and the two were chatting in a relaxed fashion, or so it would seem to the casual observer, anyone who really knew Alec, not that many did, would have seen just how on edge the X5 was.

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Alec knew that something was up the minute he stepped into Crash, there was something in the air, something familiar, he couldn't quite figure out what exactly it was, but he knew that it was important, he was so distracted, that he was only half listening to what Sketchy was saying, and had subconsciously begun to scan the area for potential threats, that is, until his eyes locked with Max's.

"Shit." exclaimed Alec, too quietly for Sketchy to hear. His spine straightening automatically Alec continued to gaze into Max's chocolate brown eyes with intensity bordering on frightening, even to himself, her eyes were liquid with desire. HEAT.

Max was in heat, and the way she was looking at him was not leaving much to the imagination, she looked like she was ready to pounce, but then again, so did he if what he was feeling was any indication. Her pheromones were completely over whelming, "Well now I know what I could smell earlier!" he thought with irritation, he knew he should have left, the minute he realised that something was up, but it was far too late for that now…

Max was going to kill him when this was all over, but right now, he just couldn't bring himself to care, he knew that he should leave, but he was frozen in place by her gaze, he couldn't move, he was completely entranced by her beauty, not that that was unusual, but that he seemed to be having the same effect on her was exhilarating to say the least.

The eye contact between them was becoming intense to say the least, in fact he had started to block out everything else, as it seemed she had too, it was like nothing in Crash existed except the two of them. He could literally feel the heat and tension radiating between the two of them, and it was almost more than he could stand. He had ceased listening to Sketchy some time ago, as it seemed Max had with OC.

He knew that he shouldn't be doing this, but the rational part of his brain seemed to have completely lost control, for the time being over ridden by more primal instincts and he couldn't help but start to make his way across the floor to Max, single minded in his objective he completely blanked half a dozen people who tried to talk to him, some seriously hot chicks included, he didn't seem to see anything but Max, nor did she see anything but him.

Mate. This the one thought was constantly crashing through Alec's head as he made his way to Max, he knew what she wanted, and he wanted to give it to her. Mate, he would be her mate, as he had wanted to be since the first moment he met her, he knew, had always known that this would be the ultimate conclusion of their relationship, they were meant to be, a matched set, even if she didn't want to admit it, everything in him screamed that it was true, and he knew that on some level, she felt it too, which was why she was trying so hard to push him away, to deny the attraction, whilst at the same time using any excuse to touch him, even hitting him, and butting into his life at every turn, growing ever more furious with his somewhat roving eye. As if any of those girls could ever hold a candle to Max, they meant nothing to him, but a guy had to do something with his time, and with Max in such deep denial about their obvious chemistry and still clinging on to the safety of her non relationship with Logan he needed some kind of stress relief or he was going to go insane.

Alec knew that on some level Max had recognised him for what he was, a very desirable potential mate, an X5 'alpha', like her, exactly what her transgenic nature was crying out for, but her conscious mind had rebelled against the idea. She had left Manticore too early to know anything about transgenic relationships, she had absolutely no idea of the intensity of feeling involved, she had only ever been with normals before, and knew nothing about the mating process in transgenics. She had no idea that with her constant touching she had effectively marked him off as hers, Alec's more primal mind realised, what his conscious mind did not yet see, or that he had done the same, and, was therefore probably clueless as to why she had not launched herself at the first available male, she had probably thought that Manticore had managed to 'fix' her heats or something, as if they could ever eliminate that part of transgenic nature!

She didn't get it, this wasn't just about sex, it was about procreation, about bonding, about finding an equal, someone to love her, to protect her, to understand her the way no normal could, someone to give her what she, hungered for, what she craved, not tender caresses or candle light, but blood, union in the most brutal sense of the word, that was what she needed, though she didn't recognise it, yet.

As Alec walked steadily towards his target, Max never stopped eye contact with him, the air between them was now sizzling, absolutely electric, with enough sexual tension between them to run half of America for a week. But unfortunately OC seemed to have now realised what was happening, a look of panic flickering across her face, but she was too late to prevent what was now inevitably going to happen, and Max simply blurred past her when she tried to stop her from trying to jump Alec, similarly Sketchy had now noticed Alec's wandering attention, but although startled by it, he had no idea of what was going on, or why his friend was suddenly ignoring him.

Max had started moving too now, moving towards Alec with the same single-mindedness that he was showing, it was only a matter of time until the two would collide…

It was hard to tell who initiated, but when they were within a few paces of each other, suddenly they both leapt, fusing their lips in a brutal, bruising kiss, Max's legs were around Alec's waist, and Alec's hands were roving under Max's shirt, whilst her hands were tracing the muscle patterns of his back.

The bar meanwhile went completely silent, seemingly rendered speechless at the sight of Max the 'bitch' and Alec the 'ladies man' suddenly going at it on the dance floor, in public, surrounded by Jam Pony employees, who were even more shocked about the strange turn of events than Crash regulars, seeing as they witnessed Max and Alec's spectacular fights on a daily basis. Just what the fuck had happened to make two enemies suddenly want to jump each other's bones?

Sketchy and OC were similarly shocked, Sketchy going so far as to completely drop the entire jug of beer he was carrying, something which even in the most dire cases he generally avoided doing, but even he had his limits, and watching Max and Alec, two of his best friends practically getting it on, on the dance floor was more than he could comprehend, was he missing something really important about this situation? OC meanwhile could guess what was happening, it figured that a male X5 would be hit by heat just as hard as a female, so she couldn't exactly blame either of them, and maybe Max hadn't been throwing herself at anyone else because her cat DNA recognised Alec as the best target, well stranger things had happened! Though OC couldn't help wondering if there was more between Max and Alec than some feline DNA, if that sizzling kiss was anything to go by the two definitely had chemistry!

Meanwhile Alec had become aware of their audience, and still had enough presence of mind to realise that making a scene like this was probably not the best idea, so if they wanted to continue with this little adventure they were better off going back to his apartment, he also had to admit, that with his testosterone levels rocketing in response to Max's pheromones, if he didn't get out of here soon he was going to end up killing the next guy that so much as looked at Max, his mate, hmmm, somehow he didn't think that Max was going to particularly like that train of thought much, she would never consciously pick him as her mate, but right now, with his arms full of squirming Max Alec just couldn't bring himself to care.

"Max lets get outta here," Alec finally managed to grunt out, when Max briefly released his lips to mark his neck with her teeth, "Umhmm" Max murmured in seeming agreement, never once stopping in her ministrations to his neck, nipping her sharp incisors over the sensitive skin of his newly exposed collar bone, Alec groaned at her movements, and with renewed purpose tried to manoeuvre them through the curious crowds to his waiting motorbike, without breaking contact with Max, not an easy feat, but he was not an X5 for nothing, and he had been top back at Manticore, so somehow he managed it.

Getting out of Crash however was the easy part, getting back to his apartment, on a motorbike travelling at high speed with an amorous Max and a raging hard on was not, and how he ever managed it without causing a serious traffic accident, or getting stopped by a curious sector cop for indecent exposure he would never know, but somehow he did, making it all the way to his apartment block in one piece. The interesting part now, was getting up the stairs without ripping each other's clothes off, a problem which Max was really not trying to help with, she seemed to have no problem stripping off in the corridor, but Alec, with his territorial instincts kicking in, absolutely refused to let his mate walk around naked in front of a bunch of ordinary males, she was his.

Once inside his apartment things really heated up, and clothes were soon discarded in every direction, lost in the feel of skin on skin, biting, blood and endless pleasure, it was mind blowing for both of them, neither one had experienced heat like this before, and it was more than they had ever dreamed of, exhilarating, intoxicating, glorious, it was perfection, two bodies moving as one, perfectly in tune, perfectly aware of the other's needs, and with their stamina, the end was no where in sight…

You know the drill, please review, all comments are welcome, but try not to flame, I'm well aware how overdone this plot is, I don't need to be told, I'm already in deep denial that I would ever actually post this, it was originally only written for my own amusement, to cure some writers block on my other stories. Anyway please review! Thanks!
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