I was woken up some time later by an intense itching. My left arm and side itched unbearably and I realized that I had neglected the road burns in the face of my bullet wound and taking care of Alec.

Slowly, I titled my head up to see if Alec was awake. Hazel green eyes met my own blue ones. I smiled.

“Hi.”

“Hey.” he replied, returning my smile, “Sleep well?”

“Yeah.”

Reluctantly, I left his arms and sat up. Rolling up the sleeve of my shirt, I took a look at the bandage on my arm. It took a lot of discipline to resist the urge to scratch. Instead, I began to unwrap the old bandage. The skin underneath was still sore and red, but was virtually healed. I noticed Alec watching me closely with narrowed eyes.

“I wasn’t informed that you had other injuries.” he said angrily.

“Nothing big. Just some road rash from when I lost control of my bike.” I shrugged, pulling up the hem of my shirt to reveal the bandage there.

I peeled off the medical tape that held the bandage on and saw that the skin on my stomach was in the same state as my arm, a little raw, but much better.

“You need to be more careful.” Alec scolded gently, pushing himself up into a sitting position, as well, and pulling me back into his arms.

“This coming from the guy who got shot in the stomach.” I realized that I still had no idea how that had happened, “Now, how did you manage that?”

“Well,” Alec said slowly, looking up at the ceiling, “we were trying to be subtle, you know. So eight of us went in, Char watching our backs. We were quiet as mice and everything would have been great except we ended up crashing a party. Turns out someone else had the same idea we did, thought they’d take advantage of a five finger discount. I didn’t have a choice. If we laid low, they’d have taken off with all the supplies we needed. So, I signaled for an attack. Things got kind of crazy after that. I made the mistake of thinking I could distract and take out most of them so that the others would be free to move out the supplies. Turns out I’m not that talented. Lucky for me the others had been able to get most of the stuff out before I got shot.”

I frowned, realizing how close I had come to losing him.

“But, it’s all good, right?” Alec said lightly, “Hey, it’s 0800. You want something to eat?”

“Desperately.” I agreed, my hunger overwhelming me at the mention of food.

I got up, testing my leg and finding to my satisfaction that it held my weight almost as well as normal. I turned and helped Alec up.

“Let’s see what I’ve got in here.” he said, heading out of the bedroom, across the living room, to the kitchen.

The kitchen was almost as barren as the living room, housing a refrigerator and a stove. There was no table, only a counter. The hinges on half of the cabinets were broken, leaving the doors hanging at an angle. Alec rummaged through them all before emerging triumphant from the refrigerator with a carton of eggs and a package of sausage.

“I’ll make you an omelet.” he said, finding a frying pan and turning to the stove.

I used my arms to push myself up onto the counter and sat there, watching him. He was still in need of a shower, his hair stuck out everywhere. But in spite of all of this, he was still extremely cute. Especially when he dropped eggshells in the omelet and tried to fish them out in a nonchalant way, obviously hoping I wouldn’t notice. I smiled as I watched him, but decided that I should probably take this opportunity to take a shower myself.

“I’m going to take a shower, okay?” I said, slowly lowering myself from the counter.

“Okay.” Alec said over his shoulder, “Breakfast will be ready by the time you’re done.”

I nodded and headed to the bathroom. There was no hot water, but that was okay. The cold water felt good on my sore skin. I borrowed some of Alec’s shampoo and washed my hair. The shampoo stung my bullet wound, but it wasn’t too bad. It felt good to be clean again.

I pulled my clothes back on and put on another fresh bandage on my leg. The smell of breakfast came to me and I hurried out of the room, toweling my hair.

“Smells good.” I told him, my stomach growling loudly.

“Not hungry are you?” Alec teased, handing me a plate and a fork.

I set down the towel on the counter so that I could snatch the food from him and quickly began to wolf it down. I moved into the living room, still eating and plopped down in Alec’s recliner.

“Thief.” Alec accused, standing over me with his own plate heaped with food.

“You’ll live.”

“I make you breakfast, let you use my shower, and you steal my chair.”

“Pretty much.” I agreed.

“You’re lucky I like you.” he said.

I paused in my eating to smile at him. That was the first time he’d actually said that to me.

Alec perched on the arm of the recliner and proceeded to eat his food just as fast as I had eaten mine.

A knock on the door interrupted our breakfast.

“I’ll get it.” I said since I had already finished.

I got up, knowing Alec would take my seat the moment I was gone, and went to open the door.

“Kira?”

“I’ve been looking all over for you!” she exclaimed, “You said you would come find me, but you never did.”

“I’m sorry. I fell asleep.”

“You hardly ever sleep.” Kira said suspiciously.

“I don’t know what to tell you. I was tired.” I shrugged.

Kira just glared at me in response.

“Hi, Kira.” Alec called from the recliner.

Kira’s glare was transferred to him.

“Want breakfast?” he offered, holding out a forkful of eggs to her.

Kira looked disgusted. She grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me into the hallway, slamming the door behind me.

“Did you do something stupid?” she demanded.

“What?” I asked.

“I thought you’d learned not to let yourself be hurt by him. And yet, it seems I hardly see you when you’re not with him. Haven’t you noticed how you hate him every other minute? That’s not the sign of a healthy relationship.”

“I don’t hate him.” I said quietly.

“I can’t remember how many times you’ve told me you hate him.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“So?”

“It’s different now. Everything is different. I know you don’t trust him, Kira, but I do. I trust him with my life.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Just trust me, okay? You trusted me when I asked you to leave Manticore, trust me now. He won’t hurt me. He cares about me.”

Kira looked sad.

“I want to trust you, I do.”

“Then, do.”

“I’d like to, it’s just...” Kira broke off and looked away with a guilty expression on her face, alerting me to the fact that she knew something that she didn’t want to tell me.

“What?” I demanded.

Kira sighed.

“Do you remember when I got assigned a mission with 530?”

“Of course.” I nodded.

It had been an unusually trying three weeks without my friend, 772, around.

“I never told you, but 530 had just gotten back from another mission with 511 and 494.”

I didn’t like where this was going. My eyes narrowed as I watched Kira glance uncertainly back at the door to Alec’s apartment.

“She told me about the mission. About the things that 494 did. I know that was a long time ago, but what worries me is that he’s using some of the same lines on you. And you’re responding the same way his targets did. It’s hard to shake our training. You know that. But it’s even harder to shake when you were good at it.”

For the first time in my life, I was angry at Kira.

“What is your problem?” I yelled at her, “Why are you so damned set against him? He never did anything to you! And besides that, it’s none of your business, okay? I’m not stupid. I can make my own decisions. You know what? I can’t even talk to you right now.”

I promptly turned and reentered the apartment, slamming the door behind me. I knew that Kira had my best interests at heart, but why wouldn’t she just leave it alone? She’d made her opinion known. I had noted it. Now it was time to move on and let me make my own decisions. I wasn’t a child.

“Problems?” Alec’s voice penetrated my thoughts.

I shook my head, knowing as I did so that he would know I was lying, but hoping that he would take the gesture as a hint that I didn’t want to discuss it.

“I heard what she said.” Alec said quietly, evidently not taking the hint.

“I know.”

“She’s right, you know.”

I looked at him in surprise. My mind started to race with the implications of what he had just said.

“What I mean is that I have used some of the same lines on you, but there’s a reason for that.” he sighed in frustration, “Man, sharing sucks. I did it because I didn’t want to...to admit to myself that you actually mattered to me. So, I reverted to some old standby’s, trying to make this different than it is, trying to make it just physical. But you know I can’t do that. You have to know I can’t. I mean, I do think you’re hot and all, but...well, I don’t...I mean, you’re...ah, hell.”

“I don’t understand. Are you saying that you didn’t want to like me, you just wanted to sleep with me?” I rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to dispel a growing headache.

“Yes and no. You...well, you remember what happened with Rachel.” he fell quiet and suddenly everything made sense.

He didn’t want to care about me because he was a afraid of going through the same hell that had occurred when he’d cared about Rachel. That mission had taught him an important lesson, caring meant hurting. The obvious solution: not to care. So, he’d tried to make himself believe that he didn’t care about me as a person, but only as someone to sleep with. Just like I’d been afraid he might think of me as. But the thing was, he couldn’t convince himself. Which meant it wasn’t true. Which meant I was right and Kira was wrong; he did care about me.

“Alec.” I said softly, dropping carefully to my knees in front of his chair and reaching forward to hug him.

He scooted forward in his chair and accepted the hug, but I had to push him away a few moments later because the position was too painful on my leg.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized quickly, not wanting him to get the wrong idea, “My leg...”

“Oh! I’m sorry.” he said immediately, standing and lifting me to my feet with him.

“It’s alright.” I said into his shoulder, still enfolded in a hug and not about to let go.

I rested my against the same shoulder, feeling the soft fabric of his shirt against my cheek. I felt Alec sigh again into my hair.

“You know, one thing I don’t get. What the heck do you see in me? I know I’m hot and sexy and all, but really.”

I smiled slightly.

“I don’t know. Maybe I just think you’re cute.” I smirked.

“You want my body. I knew it.”

“You’re such an...”

“Ass? What’s with your fixation on that portion of my anatomy?” Alec teased.

I pulled away from him slightly and smiled upon seeing the sparkle in his eyes.

“I was going to say idiot.” I informed him.

“Sure.” he replied skeptically.

“Maybe you’re the one with the ass fixation.”

“Well...” a devilish look appeared on his face.

I moved to smack him, but slowed my hand before it hit his face, simply resting it on his cheek. The devilish look faded into seriousness and he leaned forward and kissed me. For some reason, my legs felt weak as he deepened the kiss, but his arm around my waist supported me.

Finally, reluctantly, we separated. I dropped my head to his chest and he rested his chin on top of my hair.

“I’m afraid I’m getting too attached to you.” I informed him.

“Just a bit.” he agreed.

“What should I do about Kira?”

“I don’t know, Jess. I don’t want you to lose a friend because of me.” he lost his seriousness and returned to his usual light attitude, “Maybe she just needs to get laid.”

“I won’t lose her because of you. She’s just so...so set against you. I don’t know why, but she refuses to see you as a good guy. Although she is right about me spending a lot of time with you. I kind of feel bad about abandoning her in a new place.”

“You didn’t abandon her.” Alec cut in before I could continue, “She’s doing fine. Don’t worry about it. It’ll work out.”

I sure hoped so.

Suddenly, the sound of ringing filled my ears. Alec stepped back away from me and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

“What’s up, Max? What? Shit. I’ll be there in a minute. Hold tight.”

His face was scrunched with worry and anxiety as he hung up the phone.

“CAT’s here.”