Charade.

A Max/Alec character pairing story based on the TV series Dark Angel (Cameron/Eglee)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of "Dark Angel's" original storylines or characters. This author is in no way associated with the owners, writers and producers of this show.

Chapter Three (told from both Alec and Max's POV)

The staring continues for quite some time until they both speak at once.

"It's not what it looks like!", they say rather unconvincingly.

There was once again a pause, of disbelief mostly, before Alec's voice fills the silence.

"Who are we kidding Max? I guess maybe it was what it looked like...for both of us. We just didn't want to get caught right?", Alec admits looking to Max for confirmation. As he makes this declaration he has the mind set to pull up his boxers under the now very sticky blanket.

"I heard heavy breathing and I thought you were having a nightmare", Max tries to explain.

"God this is so embarassing!"

"Uh thanks for worrying about me Maxie but as you can see I'm alright", he says somewhat sheepishly. "How long were you standing there anyway?"

"Not long", she responds a bit too quickly.

"But you said you heard heavy breathing. That could have been anytime and", he cuts off his inquisition at the sight of her deep pink blush. "Oh my god, you were there the whole time!", he realizes.

"Not the whole time", she protests rather weakly. "I just...well...when I saw you I couldn't stop...staring."

"Turned you on did I Maxie?", he quips.

"Shut up Alec. That's not what I meant", she says.

"What DID you mean then?", Alec questions.

"I don't know. I mean yes I was staring...there..." Max looks away embarassed. "But I was mostly watching your face. You seemed so content. I wondered what it was you were thinking about that was making you feel that way. I mean come on Alec, lately you've been different. Other people have noticed too. They've even asked me about it. You just don't seem happy. So I guess when I saw happiness on your face, I couldn't look away", she explains hoping he'll understand and not think of her as a complete pervert.

"You", Alec confesses. "I was thinking about you."

"What?"

"I can't do this anymore Max. I can't keep up this charade. You wanna know why I haven't been happy lately? It's because every time I get to touch you and kiss I know it's going to end as soon as Logan stops watching. I have to look at you everyday at command central and every night in our apartment and know that I can never have you, not really. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?"

Max is speechless. All of her confused feelings of late coming to a head all at once.

"Well, that brought an abrupt end to this conversation", Alec comments standing up and crumpling the dirty blanket in his hands. "As much as I'd like to stick around to hear you tell me what a great friend I am and how thankful you are for my help", he continues. "I''ve got some laundry to do." He grabs his jeans and t-shirt on the way out the door and promptly leaves the apartment, slamming the door on his way out.

A short bit of time passes but Max still hasn't moved. Her feet are glued to the floor. A part of her wanting to run after him and the other part, well she is a self-proclaimed chicken shit after all. Besides what would she say to him that he would even believe.

She starts pacing the floor talking out loud to herself. "God I'm stupid. It's not like I can make everything all right by saying I love you Alec. Please don't leave me. I know you think I love Logan and I do in a friendship way but somewhere during this whole charade, it stopped being about him and started being about you."

Max stops pacing. The confusion about her feellings having suddenly cleared. Then she continues on with her little self-motivational speech.

"Those words just sound selfish right? Putting Alec through the torture of my lies of omission, admitting that I'm not pretending anymore and sometime reach for him even when Logan isn't there. Crap! He'll never believe me", she sighs.

Suddenly it didn't matter if he did. She had to at least ty and she's tired of running. What was it she called herself earlier? A kick ass transgenic female! They didn't run from anything, especially stupid men. Forgetting that she's still in her pajamas, Max stomps over to door pulling on her boots. She'd go to him and tell him everything. Make him believe her and if he didn't, well that's his loss right? Wrenching the door open, she walks through it and for the second time that night stops dead in her tracks. There he is, leaning against the wall with a serious look on his face.

"Hey", he says.

"Hey", she says back.

"I thought you went to do your laundry?"

He shrugs. "I couldn't bring myself to leave right away."

"Not to be redundant in our questions, but how long have you been standing there Alec?"

"Not long. You know you shouldn't talk to yourself. People might think you're crazy", he states matter of factly.

Max says nothing. She simply stares at him mouth agape. Was he mocking her? Did he really think that she was nuts? Before her mind could stray any further, Alec moves towards her.

"Maxie", he sighs taking her face into the palms of his hands. "Do you have any idea how crazy I am about you? What do you say we be crazy together?"

She looks into his eyes and sees hope and happiness there. Smiling, Max says the only thing she can say to him. "Yes. I will be crazy in love with you Alec."

Then he's kissing her and moving them back towards the open apartment door, closing it behind them. Laughter can be heard on the other side. But on this side, the forgotten blanket remains on the floor. Laundry can wait for another day.

The end.

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading. Once again, a happy ending. There's just too much angst and sadness in the real world to have it any other way. Originally I was just going to write a Max POV story but I love getting inside Alec's brain. Max's brain was a bit harder for me to write. I hope I did ok.