Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Alec, Logan, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Brenda/X5-008, etc.).

"Time for Phase One of Plan A," I said to Krit, Zane, and Nick as we walked through Terminal City. "Damn, I hope that this works."

"So do we," Zane agreed. I turned my head to glare at him and he laughed. "Relax, Alec, I'm sure that it'll work. This will be a great first move. You'll be with her underneath the stars on a beautiful night and I know that it won't be long until you'll be doing that with her all by yourselves."

I smirked. "Like big boys and girls?"

Zane grinned. "Exactly."

"It'll be interesting, that's for sure," Nick remarked. He made a face. "Please tell me that Max didn't make the food for our little outing tonight."

"Don't worry, Syl and Brenda took care of the cooking with some help from Joshua," Krit assured him. "We're going to be having food that's not only edible, but actually good."

"Thank goodness," Nick said. "'Cause if we're not, then I'm really sorry, Alec, but I'm going to have to bail on this."

"Completely understandable," I laughed.

Time out to explain a couple of things. It's been two weeks since Logan made his last appearance here in T.C. to beg for Max's forgiveness. I've been careful to not be too much of an idiot with Max. It really wasn't as hard as I thought that it might have been. I might be madly in love with Max, but I was still and always would be her friend and that was what she'd needed lately. Since some time has passed, though, I thought that I should make my first move in Max's direction, so to speak. After a pow-wow with Krit, Zane, Syl, Jondy, Brin, Nick, and Brenda, we came up with a plan for tonight, said plan being a nice nighttime picnic with all of us, during which I would possibly make a couple of subtle moves or the other make a few insinuations. I know, a picnic in the middle of Terminal City? You can pretty much thank Josh for that one. He'd read about picnics one day not too long after we'd moved in following the Jam Pony incident and had wanted to have one, but patches of grass are kind of in short supply here. What we did have was a huge plaza and what we did find in one of the abandoned warehouses was a gigantic square of that foam material that they used to use in pillows and on the space shuttle. Max, Josh, and I came up with the idea of spreading the foam across the plaza and covering the foam with a tarp, thus making a nice, comfy area for people to enjoy the outdoors when the weather wasn't too bad. Sweet idea, isn't it? But back to the situation at hand.

"Okay, where are they?" I wondered as we got to the plaza. I checked my watch. Seven on the nose. We'd made plans for the girls to meet us—oh, there they were. "Hey, ladies. Glad that you could make it."

"We wouldn't miss it," Max said. "Nice weather, friends and family, decent food…top that combo."

"I know I'd be hard pressed to top it," Brenda agreed. She unrolled the blankets that she'd been carrying and spread them out over the tarp. "This is going to be great."

"Definitely," Jondy seconded.

We sat down, Jondy and Brin opened the large coolers that they'd been carrying, and we began to chow down on the food. Nice. A bazillion fast food places out in Seattle and Syl and Jondy manage to make fried chicken here in T.C. that beats the stuff in those places to hell in a hurry. Ahh, nothing washes fried chicken down like a cold beer. I was honestly having a great time, and I could tell that everybody else was as well.

"This was great," Zane said with a satisfied sigh. He stuffed one last forkful of potato salad in his mouth, swallowed, and stood up. "Unfortunately, I've got to get going. Brenda and I have some plans."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow. This was news to me. Bren didn't mention anything to me before about doing anything with Zane. "And what might those plans be?"

"We're going to have a threesome," Brenda said. She caught the incredulous looks on Syl and Brin's faces. "Don't worry, the other woman is an X5. I used to know her from back in the day."

"Zane, you're a pig," Max said, disgusted.

I held up a hand. "Let's back this up, Maxie. Brenda says she and Zane are going to have a threesome and you don't bat an eyelash when she mentions it, but Zane's a pig?" I clicked my tongue. "Maxie, Maxie, Maxie…"

"Don't worry, we're all consenting adults about to engage in activity that all three of us agreed on," Brenda said. "Gem's watching Pete, so he's in good hands. And I can assure you that every protection will be used." She gave Zane a sweet smile. "Or somebody won't get any." That got a laugh out of everybody.

"Please tell me that you forgot your stuff," Krit begged, grinning. Nick nearly spit out his mouthful of beer, but managed to keep it and his laughter under control.

"Good one." He and Krit exchanged high fives. I took advantage of their lack of attention to their stuff and leaned over Max to grab Krit's beer. I just happened to brush Max as I reached over her. I briefly tensed, expecting her to smack me. She didn't. Phew! Good sign. Unfortunately, Krit caught me trying to make the grab on his drink.

"Nice try, but no cigar," he said gleefully. He gave me a shove backwards and I ended up crashing into Max. Well, it was more like crashing on top of her because my balance was off because I wasn't expecting Krit to shove me. Honestly, I wasn't. He and the others had mentioned possibly trying something half-major, but they didn't know what.

"Krit, you moron," Max snapped. She turned her head to look at me and I was breathless. My God, she has the most beautiful eyes. "Are you okay, Alec?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I managed to say. Reluctantly, I got off of her and helped her sit back up. "Are you good?"

"As gold," she replied. She glared at Krit. "Whether or not my brother will be fine, on the other hand…"

"I think this would be the time for you to run and hide, little brother," Brin commented.

Syl raised an eyebrow when Krit gave her a pleading look. "What? I'll try to protect you, but you know Max."

"Yeah," Krit conceded.

Max looked at her watch. "It's getting late and I think I'm going to have to get some sleep tonight, plus I want to get a few things done before I hit the sack. Does anybody mind?"

"No, I don't mind," I said.

"Me, neither," Jondy seconded. "I might need to sleep tonight as well." We got up and began to put the now empty food containers away in the coolers and roll up the blankets. A minute or two later, we started heading back to our apartments. I turned my head to talk to Max.

"I had fun tonight," I told her. "Sorry again about Krit shoving me."

"No harm, no foul, and if there's any bruises, they'll be gone by sunrise," Max said. She smiled. "It was fun."

I couldn't resist. "But probably not as much fun as Zane and Brenda will be having tonight, huh?"

Max smacked me on my shoulder, but there was still a sparkle in her eyes. "What an ass. I'll see you in the morning, Alec." She walked ahead of me to catch up with her sisters and I gave Krit a thumbs-up. Count Phase One as a success.

TBC