Hey everyone! Thanks for the reviews! I want you to know that my continuing the story has everything to do with the reviews I received. I'm glad that you guys encouraged me to continue this little story and I am pleased with how it ended up.

Enjoy!

"It's the middle of the afternoon, what the hell are you doing?" Max nudged Alec's shoulder as she walked by the couch on her way to grab the notebook she had left in her room that morning.

Alec inched away from her hand and reburied his head in his crossed arms. "Nappin'," he mumbled.

"What are you? Two?" Max teased as she re-entered the room and paused by the couch. As she looked down at Alec, her hand itched to reach out and ruffle his hair. There was something about the way his hair was sticking up at odd angles that made her want to run her hands through it. And that was NOT okay.

"Nooo," Alec drawled out lazily, stretching his long body out as far as it could go, arching his back at the furthest point before giving a small shudder and turning his head towards Max. "Just doing what my genetics tell me."

"I highly doubt that Manticore wanted their super soldiers to take naps while on missions," Max pointed out, her eyebrow raised in disbelief.

Alec slipped into an easy, if not slightly condescending, smile, "Manticore didn't mean for a lot of things to happen, Maxie. But, when you start throwing animal DNA into people, you get some weird results."

He gestured to himself, "Such as humans that really like naps. And I'm sure you've noticed how much better we sleep when there is someone next to us. It's just a cat thing."

"Well," Max had to fight to put an annoyed expression on, "just make sure you get back to Command as soon as possible."

"Hmm mmm," Alec replied as he shifted to get back into prime napping position.

As Max quietly shut the door behind her, she couldn't help but be a little envious of the way Alec just accepted the things that Manticore did to them. She hadn't noticed that her sleep was better when she was next to someone because she refused to admit that the animal DNA had any power over her. Well, she had to admit that it played some part because she didn't have to sleep nearly as much as a normal human did, but that side effect wasn't horrible. The fact that Alec knew he wanted to nap because they had tossed a bit of cat DNA into his genes and was okay with it? Yeah, she just couldn't be like that.

Their front door banged shut as Max stomped into the apartment three weeks later, "Okay, nap time is over! You missed a meeting!"

Max stopped next to Alec's head and flicked his exposed ear, "Alec, wake up!"

Alec blearily lifted his head and blinked slowly, "Huh?"

"Get up!" Max demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's one thing to nap; it's another to blow off your responsibilities!"

"Maxie, I'm tired," Alec whined, trying to avoid Max's hand that was attempting to flick him again.

"You don't just get to sleep whenever you want," Max explained.

"I don't!" Alec defended. "In the past three weeks, how many nights have been spent in Command? How many times have we been getting back from raids as the sun came up? I'm not you Max, I need sleep!"

Max blinked as Alec's voice got borderline hysterical and she finally took in the dark rings under his eyes and the fact that they were blood-shot and watery. His clothes were wrinkled and he was sporting some slight stubble on his face. He looked like he hadn't slept in forever.

"I…" Max stopped as Alec's shoulders tightened, obviously expecting her to blow off his explanation and yell at him to get his ass going.

Alec shoved himself into a sitting position and nodded, "I'm going."

"Wait!" She blurted out, holding her hand out to stop his movements. She quickly turned and sat down in the available space.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Alec asked wearily, too tired to try and guess what Max was getting at.

"Lay down, idiot," Max bit out, already uncomfortable without having to explain herself.

Alec's brow furrowed in obvious confusion, "But, I…you…where?"

Max's hand snapped out and instead of slapping him on the shoulder like he expected, it closed around it and pulled him towards her. "I swear, sometimes I think you're purposefully dense," she ground out as his head hit her lap.

"Max?" Alec questioned, not allowing himself to relax an inch.

"Just…" Max fidgeted underneath him, "go to sleep."

"But," he tried to ask, but she ignored him and clicked the tv on, the volume down so low that even he had to strain to hear it.

"Shut up, Alec," Max ordered, refusing to meet his questioning gaze. "We have to be back in Command in five hours. You can either sleep or we can go back to Command and work on creating the new guard rotation."

"Right, sleeping," Alec snapped his mouth shut. But, how often was it that Max pulled him into her lap and told him to take a nap? Sure bet was, never in a million years. "Max, why are you doinmph..."

Max clamped her hand over Alec's mouth, " .sleep." she enunciated. "You said we sleep better when we are around people; consider this your power nap." When Alec didn't try to talk again, Max removed her hand, but noticed that Alec wasn't relaxing.

It wasn't for lack of trying, he had tried to relax muscle by muscle from his toes, but around his knees he had to start all over again. He tried to make his mind blank, but then his thoughts would drift to guard rotations, food rations, or the fact that his head was currently laying on Max's legs. It was the age old curse that you could sleep like a log, unless you had to, then it was impossible to get your brain to shut off. Finally, he broke, "Maxie, I can't."

Max shook her head at his tone, he would deny it till his death, but it sounded like he was about to break, "You always have to make things difficult, don't you?"

"I'm sorry," he snapped, "it isn't like I want to be awake right now. I just…I just…"

Alec trailed off as Max unexpectedly ran her fingers through his shaggy hair, his eyes snapping shut of their own accord. "I…"

"One more word and I'll stop," Max threatened, digging her fingers in deeper and letting them massage his scalp.

Alec nodded his understanding, letting out a heavy breath as Max hit a spot behind his ear. "Mmm," Alec nearly purred as Max ran over the spot again, causing Max's lips to quirk up in amusement.

Even after Alec had succumbed to sleep, Max continued to lazily run her hands through his hair. It was something she had wanted to do for weeks now and she was going to take full advantage of the opportunity….she meant, it was only to help Alec catch some sleep….

About an hour into it, Alec had shifted his body around so that he was facing Max and her hands had moved from his hair to his slightly furrowed brow, determined to smooth any lines off of it. Then they traced down his nose, across his high cheekbones, up to the curve of his ear, down along his jaw, coasted to the back of his neck where she knew his barcode to be

She let her own heavy breath out…he really was gorgeous.

Not that he needed anyone to tell him that.

Around the third hour, Max had shifted slightly, sliding down a bit so she was lying against the back of the couch. Alec's body immediately adjusted to her new position by flopping over onto his stomach, curling an arm around her waist, and snuggling his head into her stomach.

"Even in your sleep," Max grumbled, but didn't attempt to move him. To be honest, she was getting a bit tired herself. Alec was right earlier, they had been putting in a lot of hours over the past couple of weeks; so many that even with shark DNA it was difficult to stay focused. Maybe it was the hours, maybe it was having sat there in one spot for hours, or maybe it was idea that Alec had planted in her head about sleeping better next to someone, but around hour four, Max let herself drift off.

Where were those drums coming from? There weren't drums in his dream. In fact, he was having the most wonderful dream where he had fallen asleep on Max. But, he couldn't deny that there was a continuous banging going on. Peeling one eye open, he looked up, only to meet Max's gaze as her eyes popped open.

Okay, that last part was not a dream; he did fall asleep on Max. He would have to figure that one out once he figured out why the dream drums were still banging away.

"Door," Max explained, coming out of her sleep faster than Alec.

Alec nodded, but made no move to get up.

"Alec, I have to answer the door," Max insisted, gently trying to unwrap his arms from around her waist.

Alec's head shook in disagreement, tightening his arms in response.

"Don't be difficult," Max admonished, but still made no move to shove him off of her. It was oddly difficult to be mean to him when he was acting like this. "I have to get the door."

"No," Alec mumbled, not wanting her to get up and ruin whatever had sparked the moment.

The knocker didn't seem to have the same wants as Alec because he continued to knock every few seconds. Finally, he appeared to grow tired of knocking and called out instead, "Max, are you okay? You missed the meeting!"

Max felt Alec's muscles instantly tighten up again as he recognized Logan's voice. She couldn't really blame him; she felt her own jump as well. She hadn't been avoiding Logan since she had moved in with Alec; she just tried to not be in the same room with him alone. Okay, maybe she was avoiding him. But, what else was she supposed to do? Logan had told her to make a choice and she had moved in with Alec. How was she supposed to act around him after that? Especially with the initial rumors that had flown around TC after she first moved in.

"He's not gonna stop until I open the door," Max rationalized to the unmoving Alec.

Alec withheld his sigh, knowing that Max was right, but even more unwilling to move now that he knew who he was moving for.

"Max?" Logan called out again.

Max raised her eyebrow at Alec when he peered up at her. He rolled his eyes as he released his hold on her, letting his hands drift across her sides as he pulled them away and rolled his body to the side so she could stand up.

Once she had the ability to stand, Max quickly convinced herself that she actually wanted to go answer the door and hauled herself off of the couch. Stretching out a kink in her back as she opened the door, she offhandedly thought that the couch was not very comfortable at all.

Logan was just about to knock again when the door swung open to reveal Max mid-stretch, her shirt riding up on her stomach. "Max!" he blurted out in surprise. He was starting to worry about her. She and Alec hadn't shown up for the weekly meeting about transgenic approval among the general population. While Alec's absence hadn't raised any red flags, he often missed one or two meetings a week because of something, Max never missed one. Then, no one knew where she was until Gem mentioned that Max was searching for her wayward SIC quite a while ago. He immediately headed for their apartment, determined to make sure she was okay.

"Logan," Max responded, "What are you doing here?"

Logan looked confused for a second, "You missed the meeting tonight, no one has seen you for hours, I…we were worried."

Max looked around, blaming the impromptu nap for her missing it earlier; their apartment was plunged into darkness, the only light was from the tv and the street lamp that Alec had threatened to destroy almost every night.

"I guess I lost track of time," she replied, turning back to him.

"Lost track of time? What were you doing?" Logan asked before he could stop himself. It was none of his business and frankly if no one had seen Max or Alec in hours, he probably didn't want to know.

"Sleeping with me," Alec called out from his spot on the couch.

Logan visibly flinched and Max threw a glare at the couch, knowing that Alec was just baiting Logan as per usual.

"We fell asleep," Max explained, for some reason feeling the need to get rid of the horrified expression on Logan's face. Even if she didn't want to be with Logan, she didn't want to hurt him. Then, partly in retaliation for the baiting, she reached over and flipped the light on.

"Ow, Maxie," Alec complained as his eyes were assaulted by the light.

"Sorry I missed the meeting," Max went back to explaining to Logan, "it just felt like I hadn't gotten a break lately."

"It's fine," Logan quickly assured, "there wasn't much to report on anyways. I left a copy of my notes in your office."

"Thanks," Max said gratefully.

Then the awkward silence fell. Beyond work, there wasn't a whole lot for them to talk about.

"So," Logan began, falling silent quickly.

"Yeah," Max countered, shifting her weight around.

It continued on for another few seconds before, "I'm hungry."

Logan shook his head slightly at in Alec's direction, even though the other man was still hidden by the couch. "I guess I should let you two get back to it."

Max nodded, frankly relieved that Alec gave them an excuse to end the awkward standoff. "Thanks again for the notes; we'll see ya in a couple of days."

"Bye, Max," Logan said with a small smile. He glanced up as Alec finally unfolded himself from the couch. "Alec," he nodded in greeting and goodbye.

"Logan," Alec responded in kind with a nod of his own.

Max rolled her eyes, apparently it didn't matter whether or not your DNA was fully human, boys would be boys. "See ya," she ended with a small wave, closing the door behind Logan's retreating back.

"What?" Alec asked, his expression innocent as Max pinned him with a stare. "What'd I do?"

Max moved into the kitchen, now that Alec had mentioned it, she was rather hungry as well. "Do you two always have to goad one another?"

"Yes," Alec replied seriously as he followed her, "It's how we work. It's how guys work."

"What, some sort of male dominance thing?" Max asked skeptically.

Alec shrugged, grabbing the milk out of the fridge as Max went for the cereal. "Yeah."

Max shook her head, "You don't do it with Sketchy. You two get along great."

"Sketchy's different," Alec told her, reaching over her head to grab the cereal down without comment.

Max thought about saying that she could have gotten it down before shrugging it off and getting the bowls instead. "How is Sketchy different? He's a guy, isn't he?"

"It's debatable at times," Alec quipped, setting his load on the counter. He caught Max's eyes and while he saw the amused twinkle, he knew she wanted an answer. "Sketchy's not…" he turned and busied himself with pouring cereal into the bowls Max had just set out.

"Sketchy's not…" Max prompted, it was like pulling teeth with him tonight.

"Competition," Alec answered quickly, studiously avoiding Max's stare.

"Competition?" Max asked in confusion. "Competition for what?"

Alec couldn't stop himself from pinning Max with an incredulous stare until he could see the realization flash across her face.

"Oh," she said simply. "Well, um…"

"Can we go eat?" Alec interrupted her, not quite prepared to hear her response, whatever she was going to come up with. "I wasn't lying when I said I was starving."

Max nodded, glad that he gave her an out for the moment. They were both masters at avoiding necessary conversations. They still hadn't talked about the mistletoe incident yet and with every passing day it was becoming clear that they were going to have to sit down and actually hash things out. However, so long as they both worried about what that talk would do to whatever it was they currently were doing, neither was willing to force the matter.

A raid gone bad? Wasn't that how it all started?

The Ordinary's feelings towards the populous of Terminal City had been improving ten-fold over the past few weeks, not in small part due to Alec working his magic on the mayor and his buddies. Through meetings and dinners, Alec had ingratiated himself with them, turned on the charm, had them laughing and tripping over one another trying to invite him to their next party. However, that did not translate into supplies yet. So, a raid it was.

This time, Alec had volunteered to lead a team, the urge to get out of TC and stretch his legs too compelling to ignore. At first, Max had argued that he shouldn't go, TC needed its commanders. But really, her argument stemmed from being jealous that he was going to get to go and she was stuck in her self-enforced prison. In the end, she capitulated and Alec was in charge of a small group of X-series.

The raid was for medical supplies; Dix had come across some plans for an old hospital out in Sector 9 and with a bit of research, determined that it was most likely abandoned after the Pulse and some salvageable things may be left inside.

Simple, right?

Real question, when was anything simple for them?

The old hospital was really old before the Pulse hit and time hadn't been kind to it. The dilapidated building looked like it was being held together by toothpicks. Toothpicks that had crumbled down around the group when a scuffle had broken out between two X5s over a new girl in TC.

She had been meeting with the Mayor to discuss getting actual supplies shipped into TC when the team had arrived back to base, so when she returned and found out that Alec had been hurt, she had taken off towards med bay to see how bad it was.

"What do you mean he left!?" She shouted at Doc who didn't seem fazed by her anger.

"He left, got up, walked out, left," Doc surmised. "His injuries were not as severe as some of the others and I have no extra beds. He could sit in here, or he could go home, he chose to go home. I wasn't going to stop him."

Max nearly stomped her foot, "Well, you should have made him wait for me!"

She spun on her heel and rushed out the door, determined to make sure he was actually okay. By the time she reached their apartment, she had worked herself into a panic. What if he was worse off than Doc thought? What if he didn't head for the apartment? What if…

Max flung the door open and scanned the apartment for him, "Alec?" She called out, not seeing him.

It didn't take her long to hear him though and she followed the sounds of retching to the bathroom. "Alec?" She tried again, turning the handle, surprised to find it unlocked.

The first thing she noticed was Alec's form hunched over the toilet, the second was the bloodstained shirt he was wearing, the third was the fact that the blood was coming from a wound above his eye.

"What the hell?" She asked no one in particular as she moved into the bathroom. She didn't have a lot of experience taking care of people while they were being sick, but OC used to put a damp cloth on the back of her neck, so she grabbed up a blue wash cloth and ran cold water on it.

"Thanks," Alec slurred out, his head hanging over the toilet. Max kept her hands on his shoulders as he swayed a little, blood dripping down to splash macabrely on the white porcelain.

"No problem," Max told him, trying to figure out what to do with him.

Alec tried to blink slowly before giving up and keeping his eyes closed, the room was moving too much, "I think I…concussion."

"Ya think?" Max questioned, blindly reaching around till she found another rag she could dab at his forehead with.

"M'tired," he informed her as he tried to move his head away from her care. Although the movement turned his stomach again and he was back to hugging the toilet.

When he was finally done, Max slowly pulled him away from the toilet and helped him stand, "Let's get you in bed."

Once they had manuveured their way out of the bathroom, Alec tried to take a step to the right when he was stopped by Max's arm around his waist.

"Come on, Concussion Boy, this way," Max directed.

Max had lowered him down onto her bed before he found his voice, "But, this's your…"

"Let's get you out of that shirt, it's disgusting," Max cut him off.

"Knew you wanna see me shirt…without…" Alec paused and frowned, that wasn't right. "You wanna shirt me...without a shirt you see me."

"Stop thinking so hard," Max warned teasingly, as she gently pulled his shirt over his head, ignoring the way her lower stomach tightened as each inch of him was revealed. "You're gonna hurt yourself."

Alec pouted as his head popped out of the shirt, "Be nice."

"I am being nice," Max argued, gently pushing on his shoulder and forcing him to lay down. She stood up to go and get the first aid kit out of the bathroom, "Don't go passing out now."

"Yes, ma'am," Alec said reflexively.

When Max returned, she was kind of surprised to find Alec still awake, if not looking incredibly confused. "I'll get you patched up and then you can sleep for a while."

Patching him up was fairly easy. Doc had stitched up his cut, but a couple of them had ripped while he was getting sick. A couple of butterfly bandages, some gauze and he was good for a moment. The next twelve hours had been fairly simple as well; Alec would sleep for a while, Max would wake him up, repeat. Mole and Joshua had stopped by to check on him and she had reassured them that he would be fine once he decided to stop playing Sleeping Beauty, a reference that was lost on both of them.

Finally around noon the next day, Alec woke up on his own and seemed to recognize her immediately.

"About time you joined the land of the aware," Max joked.

"I feel like Mole after he looks in a mirror," Alec grumbled, trying to ignore the blinding headache he was sporting.

"I can imagine," Max agreed. "Apparently that's what you get for running into falling buildings."

Alec had to think a moment before he remembered what had happened; Aero and Jolt fighting, them hitting a support pillar that was apparently very much needed, the building starting to fall down, getting out only to realize that Dalton was still in there, diving back in and finding him, shoving Dalton out of the way when a beam fell… "Well, all the cool transgenics were doing it."

"Maybe next time you could be okay with being lame for once? Or at least be more careful?" Max tried to keep her worry for him out of her voice, but apparently she failed when Alec opened his eyes and caught her gaze.

"I'll be more careful," he promised. He wasn't going to promise to not do stupid things in order to keep his team safe, they would both know it was a lie.

"Good," Max breathed out, it had been a long night with the silence and she had plenty of time to think about all the 'what ifs' that ended with Alec not coming back at all. "Because you told me a while back that it would take a lot for me to get rid of you."

"I meant it," he confirmed, thinking back to that conversation. Which lead him to an important realization, "I'm in my bed."

"What?" Max tried to follow his line of thought.

"I'm in my bed," He repeated. "That day, when I left TC and you were worried about me, I promised that you couldn't get rid of me that easily and then I said that I still planned on getting my bed back. Well, I have my bed back!"

"Uh, no, this is still my bed," Max informed him.

"What is it that they say about possession?" Alec asked her slyly.

"You're not taking my bed from me!" Max shouted, but she immediately lowered her volume when she saw him wince. "The moment you're better, you're back on the couch."

"We'll see," Alec drawled, settling his head back against the pillows. It was nice to be lying on a mattress again and not a ratty old couch. The glare that Max was shooting him was just icing on the cake.

"If you put your feet on me one more ti…MAX!"

"They're cold," Max explained as she curled her feet around Alec's warm legs.

"I know they're cold! You keep sticking them on me!" Alec shouted as she shifted them to the next warm spot, having sucked all of the heat out like little heat sucking vampire feet.

"This is your fault you know," Max explained sagely. "Before you invited yourself into my bed, I never realized they were that cold. You brought this on yourself."

Alec scoffed as he fought to keep his legs away from her questing feet, "I think you are currently participating in some revisionist history, Maxie. Last time I checked, this was originally my bed, that you stole, and you were the one who invited me back into it."

"You were hurt," Max argued, "It wasn't a standing invitation."

"Well, you should have clarified," Alec countered.

"I did! You just have selective hearing," Max said, letting her feet lie still.

Alec took a breath, assuming that she had given up her nightly goal of torturing him. "I maintain that you never told me to leave."

Max shook her head as Alec turned his body towards her and smiled. She returned the smile and before he could react to the glint she got in her eyes, her feet were underneath his shirt and pressed against his stomach.

"Maxie!" He curled inward to escape as his hands clamped down on her feet and tried to trap them with his shirt.

"You sure you don't want to go back to the couch?" She asked teasingly as she wiggled her feet out of his grasp and placed them on his chest this time.

Alec gripped her legs at the knees and pulled downwards, smirking as her feet came free. He immediately acted on his current advantage by pulling her closer to him and rolling so that she was tightly caged in his arms. He didn't say anything, but his eyes flickered down to her lips as he slowly moved forward.

It wasn't an attack on her mouth, there was no frantic scrambling to see who was going to come out on top, it was slow and lazy, like her mouth was the sole property of Alec's to plunder as he like. When he pulled away, and moved towards her ear, Max didn't need to see his face to know that there was a knowing smirk plastered on it.

Like he did with the mistletoe all those months ago, Alec let his lips graze over the curve of Max's ear, "Tell me to go and I will."

This time, Max didn't bother to hold back the shiver caused by Alec's lips, "I guess I can let you stay one more night…"

Alec's head popped up and he grinned, "Perfect! You know, one day you're just gonna have to admit that you like having me in here."

Max shook her head as Alec rolled onto his back, but wrapped his arm around her and tugged her into him. Laying her head on his chest, Max denied his statement, "Never gonna happen, Pretty Boy."

"Seeing as you said the same thing about me getting back into this bed in the first place, I don't think I'm going to believe you this time," Alec teased, running his hand down the arm Max had placed on his chest until he got to her hand.

Max watched as Alec's hand moved to cover her smaller one, their thumbs lightly moving against each other. It was true, she had never planned on sharing a bed with Alec, never planned on the butterflies that erupted in her stomach every time she saw him, the way her heart skipped a beat when his hand would touch hers when he handed her something in a meeting. It was all very girly and normal. Two things that she never thought she would have or even wanted. But, somewhere along the way, he had pushed his way into her life and there was no getting rid of him now.

But, since she was still Max and he was still Alec, "Dream on, tomorrow night your ass is sleeping on the couch."

"Whatever you say, Maxie," Alec responded as his arms tightened around her and he felt her press a light kiss on his chest.

This is the actual end! I've had fun writing this, and I hope you guys like how Alec ended up getting back into his bed. Please let me know what you think so if I decide to write more for Dark Angel, I know what works and what doesn't. If you guys have any suggestions or requests for stories, feel free to shoot them my way. Thanks!