~~! February 2022 - Terminal City !~~

Alec approached Max warily, shuffling his booted feet against the floor so that she would know he was there. She was sitting on the edge of their apartment building, her feet dangling six stories above the ground. She stared out at Seattle, noting the military trucks that still sat around the perimeter. They had been in here for months and still the military sat outside the fence.

She sighed and spoke, but didn't turn to look at Alec. "I'm fine."

"I know." He spoke softly, moving to stand beside her.

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I thought you could use a friend."

She turned her head slightly so that she could see him as he spoke. He was wearing a pair of black pajama pants, a white t-shirt, and his favorite brown leather jacket that still bore the holes in the left shoulder from the Jam Pony incident. He rubbed his eyes and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn when he caught her looking at him. He obviously woke up and missed her from their bed.

"Go get some more sleep." She said gently.

"I'd rather be here with you." He replied, reaching out and taking her hand. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand lightly. He tugged on her hand, "Come down here with me. You're making me nervous."

Max chuckled, but moved off of the three foot wall around the roof to stand beside Alec. He sat down, leaning back against the wall and pulled her down to sit between his legs. She rested her back against his chest and sighed contently, feeling his chest gently rise and fall. He wrapped his arms around her waist, inhaling the strawberry scent of her shampoo.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He broke the comfortable silence first.

She sighed before nodding slowly. "It was all my fault. I started having a seizure and the guards saw me. Zack tried to protect me. One of my other brothers, Jack, had a seizure and they took him away and killed him. So, Zack jumped the guards and then Eva joined in. She grabbed a gun and used it to hold off the guards while we escaped. Lydecker shot and killed her though. She's the reason that I don't like guns."

He nodded at this, finally understanding her aversion to his favorite weapon. He hugged her closer to his body, kissing her temple as she took a deep breath and continued.

"Zack got us outside and we split up into groups of two. Jondy and I scaled the fence together but we got separated into the woods and I fell through some thin ice." She shivered, recalling the icy needles that had stabbed her while she was in the freezing water.

Alec pulled his leather jacket off and draped it across her in an effort to stop her trembling. He rested his cheek against the top of her head and whispered, "Then what happened?"

"I hid under the ice for as long as I could. When I thought it was safe, I got out. This woman named Hannah helped me. She saw me beside the road and stopped. She saved my life that night by getting me far away from Gillette, Wyoming. She took me to her house, but she had to leave. She never came back though. I found out later that she tried to get back to me but the area was sealed off and it took her too long."

"Where did you go?" Alec had always been interested in the escape. After being sent to psy-ops because he was a twin of one of the escapees, that he hadn't even known existed, he wanted to know exactly what happened that night. He was always afraid to ask Max about it though because it would bring back painful memories for her. He wanted to protect her from those memories, but this was the anniversary of the escape. He sensed that she needed to talk about it; it was one of the reasons he had come up here.

"I ended up in a foster home with the father from hell. He abused his daughter, Lucy. He abused me. I was just a kid and I didn't know what to do. I could have stopped him, but I couldn't let anyone know who or what I was. Lucy was older than me and she always told me to stay out of the way. She was the first person that I was around away from Manticore that tried to protect me and love me. It was a new feeling, a welcome feeling."

"I love you, Maxie." Alec felt like he should say it although he had said it plenty of times before. It had be hard on her to tell him all this and he wanted her to know that he was there with her.

"I love you too, Alec." She replied, turning to kiss him lightly on the lips. He smiled down at her, silently encouraging her to go on.

"The Pulse hit and Lucy and I hid away from her father. Eventually he found us and started beating Lucy." She paused and Alec could her choked sobs. "I left her there. I ran away and left her there with that man. I should have stayed and helped her."

"Shhhh. It's ok, Max. She always tried to protect you, remember. She was protecting you then too. She was helping you."

"But I was the soldier. I was trained to deal with things like that."

"No!" Alec stated firmly, hooking a finger under her chin and bringing her head up so that she was looking at him. "Don't say that, Max! You were a child. You didn't know what to do. You were in an entirely different world and you didn't know what to do. Don't beat yourself up for making the decision that you did."

Tears filled her eyes again and she leaned back into Alec's arms, sobbing again. He held her and stroked her hair. Several minutes later, her sobs turned into hiccups and she moved away from his chest to look up to meet his concerned hazel gaze.

"Please, don't regret the decisions you made as a child, Max. Ever." He whispered, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. "We've all made decisions that we don't like. It's a fact of life. Regret can only lead to heartache."

She smiled at him, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"You'll never have to find out." He promised, capturing her lips in a tender kiss.

"I love you, Smart Alec."

"Feeling's mutual, Darlin'. Now, let's go to bed. It's cold up here!" He allowed his teeth to chatter to emphasize his playful statement. He grinned at her, gathering her in his arms and heading towards the stairs that led down to their apartment.

"I can walk you know." She laughed softly as he balanced her carefully while trying to open the door.

"I know." He replied simply. They disappeared into the building, one more burden lifted away from them.

~~! To Be Continued !~~

Author's Note: I'm sorry that it's taken me this long to update. This series got thrown on the backburner in favor of Nine Lives, but I'm a little stuck on where to go with it, so I thought I'd write this instead. I don't know much about the escape, but I did read some transcripts and look into it as much as I could. If there's any information that's not correct, please let me know. Thanks! I hope that you enjoyed it and don't forget to review!