Title: Things We Do For Love
Disclaimer: I don't have ownership of any of these characters. They belong to their respective creators, including Cameron/Eglee Productions and 20th Century Fox Studios. The story is not for sale it is written solely for Dark Angel fans. No money is being made from the use of these characters.
Spoilers: Post "Freak Nation". Futurefic
Pairing: Max/Alec

A decommissioned research facility, 20 miles outside Winthrop, Washington

Helicopter rotors hummed in the distance, the roar of Hummer engines sounded through the trees, and the signal on his Palm Pilot told them it was time to go. They had to leave and hope that Max had gotten the warning in time. Someone leaked the rendezvous. That was the only explanation he could think of.

“We’re moving out.”

The five combat-trained operatives quickly stowed their gear and made for the truck. Taking one last glance at the field surrounding the entrance to the building, their leader followed suit.

“Lydecker’s alive,” Logan said scanning the message. “He wants to set up a meet.”

Max leaned over his shoulder and read the message for herself. Lydecker had sent Logan a message via the Eyes Only Informant Net. He’d been missing for months, presumed dead. She didn’t find it strange that her former nemesis had faked his own death but her gut told her not to jump at the opportunity of a reunion. The fact that he’d reached out to them via an informant, suggested it was the man himself and not an imposter, Lydecker was one of the few outside the Terminal City HQ circle who knew Logan was Eyes Only. However considering their current circumstances, she trusted anyone outside Terminal City about as far as she could toss them and anyone attached to Manticore and the Government even less.

“What do you think?” Logan asked glancing up at her. They’d been on rocky ground for awhile. He knew she still considered him a friend, but it had been a long time since she’d ever let him get behind her emotion barricades.

Max straightened and folded her arms over her chest. “Tell him I’ll be there, but I won’t go alone. I might be fast but I’m not stupid.”

Sighing she leaned against the desk across from him and watched him type. There was no going back for them. That door had closed after their failed attack on Manticore. They’d been trying and failing to salvage something that never had a chance to began in the first place. She’d fooled herself into thinking she could have a normal relationship with a guy. It hadn’t worked, even after biochemistry forced her to find a mate. What made her think it’d work even if she chose the guy hormones aside? Who was she kidding, her life was just way too screwed up to think she could have any kind of normalcy.

No, the door to a possible Max and Logan was chained with the lock welded shut. And it wasn’t a retrovirus or an imaginary party between them, it was just the ominous sign that told her it was over, it wasn’t meant to be. Another omen, their daughter, born far too early, but offering saving grace just the same. Her heart clenched painfully at the memory.

Dr. Shankar was the one who’d broached the idea to them. A cousin of hers had once donated bone marrow to a sibling when he’d been suffering from leukemia. That experience got her thinking about their situation. Beverly had discussed Max’s condition with a geneticist friend and they’d come up with a possible solution. Cord blood from a baby carrying the genetics of both the viral host and the target.

Logan had been vehemently against the idea. He was a very traditional, old-school-type, children came after marriage and furthermore thought the whole thing seemed barbaric. Having a kid just so you could use it as a guinea pig. He hadn’t said those exact words but his arguments against going ahead conveyed his feelings pretty clearly.

Max on the other hand hadn’t been so quick to say no. The idea of carrying something inside her and raising a child under any other circumstances would have freaked her out and sent her running for the hills. But she’d been spending a lot of time with Gem and the more she got to thinking that it was something she could do. She knew if Logan was to stay a part of her life, they had to find a cure. And this was the best hope they’d been given so far. There were certainly no other alternatives looming on the horizon. After a lot of persuasion and reasoning, she had twisted his arm into letting her do it for them. After all, not much was required of him. Just a few of his little soldier’s in a cup. Turned out they needed more than a few go arounds. About eight. Even her eggs had turned out to be hostile to his DNA. It had taken persistence and lot of luck to get one egg fertilized.

She loved Logan and she’d love their child. Even if a relationship with him didn’t work out, she had convinced herself that she would always care for him and a child would only strengthen that. Everything had been so positive, so hopeful. Nothing could have prepared her for the loss. Even though the stem cells had worked and Logan was cured. Losing their baby at 14 weeks after being bed-ridden, suffering reoccurring bouts of dehydration from the vomiting, and her body fighting the pregnancy from day one, the pain hit her harder than anything else she’d ever experienced. With all the death and angst she’d been through in her life, that was saying a lot. She couldn’t explain it, it was more than feeling like a failure, it felt like she had lost part of herself and no amount of grief, regrets, reassurances or tears could mend the fracture in her heart.

They’d all tried to reach her when she’d withdrawn from everything and everyone. She’d left Terminal City, much to Logan’s anxiety. He could hide underground on the outside without a lot of trouble but she was far too recognizable. For weeks she’d crashed at Kendra’s. Walter had been amazingly supportive and invisible. Strangely enough, it had been Alec who’d finally coaxed some life into her. Seeing Logan reminded her of the baby, OC was just too sympathetic, Joshua did his best and did make her smile with his little ‘big’ brother charm but nothing he could do or say could make her forget. When Alec had come around, she’d been ready to close the door on him. She’d had enough of the good-intentions. He’d stuck his foot out and given her a stern look.

“Enough with the self-absorbed, moping Max. So you got hit good this time, it’s time to get back up. We’ve got bigger problems that you need to deal with. You didn’t ask to be a leader, and you didn’t ask to have a staring role in the pending apocalypse, but tough, you are and we need you.”

A lecture was the last thing she ever expected. Especially coming from him. At first she had been stunned for words and couldn’t face him or acknowledged his pep-talk. It was when she caught the defeated hitch in his breath, that her heart skipped a beat. He had taken a huge gamble coming to see her and an even bigger risk trying to kick her butt in gear. She thought he’d walked away but instead his arms had come around her and he’d given her a tight hug. All the feelings she had tried to bury came flooding out, he held her the whole time while she felt as though she cried herself dry. Never in her short life had she ever believed her body could produce so much fluid. Afterward they’d talked till midnight and she lost count of how many glasses of mineral water she’d downed.

The next day she’d packed her things and gone back to Terminal City. That had been about week ago and she hadn’t seen Alec since.

“Who you going to take as back up?” Logan asked with a raised eyebrow.

Max shrugged. “I’ll talk it over with the guys at HQ. They have the equipment to run com. and logistics from there. You can sit in, if you want.”

Logan looked away and tried to seem engrossed with something on screen. He shouldn’t have agreed to let her go ahead with the pregnancy. So they’d gotten a cure out of it, it wasn’t worth the price she’d paid. Their strained friendship had taken a dive further south and she seemed a shadow of her former self.

He had always been optimistic that they would have eventually found a cure, or maybe he’d have even build up an immunity, who knew. Anyway, it was in the past now. The most he could hope for is that she would still come to him for help and she still let him be a part of her life. Even if at times it seemed he was more of a distant observer, sometimes go-to guy, than anything else.

At Terminal City headquarters she’d told the boys of her news. Mole had snorted at the mention of Lydecker and firmly stated that in no-uncertain terms that he’d rather get shot in the foot than have anything to do with a Manticore crony. Dix had been equally skeptical but since he wouldn’t be leaving the comfort of his chair, he agreed to play eyes and ears.

The only X5 she could find who hadn’t either laughed or looked at her like she’d suddenly sprouted a tail to match her feline DNA, was surprise, surprise, Alec. Okay, he had laughed too, but when she’d stated that she was serious, he’d asked her when and where. When Gem heard, she’d wanted to come along but considering the drive alone was an eight-hour trip, she had to sit this one out. There was no one she could leave Missy with for longer than a couple hours. Joshua was great but even he had his limits with a super-fast toddler, with curious fingers.

“I don’t care what you tell him, just get him to co-operate. We’re weeks away from completing an inoculation but her condition is getting worse. We need some way to reach her,” the white-haired man said worriedly.

“Leave it to me,” Lydecker said confidently.

Walking out of the laboratory and down the corridor, he entered his windowless office. He sat down at his desk and tapped a key on his laptop. Returning from sleep-mode, the screen revealed a female figure prone stiffly across a small cot, restraints on her ankles and wrists. Her head was turned away from the camera and her long hair splayed across her face shielded her profile from view. He reached out and traced her the outline of her cheek.

Leaning back in his chair, he stroked his chin thoughtfully. The file spread open on his desk held various documents, a genetic profile, a psychological evaluation and other pieces of gathered information, including a few blurred black and white photographs. They’d had the X5 for months, he could very well be dead, or comatose in some lab somewhere. Neither scenario would help their cause. There was no guarantee that the information his source provided was still current.

Trying to bring in anyone else could lead to exposure, and they’d done an excellent job staying off The Conclave’s radar this long. With the resources they’d poured into this operation and all they’d left behind in order to stay alive, there was every reason to take extreme precautions. Besides, all she needed was a familiar face. A friendly face. If he were a gambling man, he’d have grabbed one of the lab techs and gotten them to role play, but his protégé was smart. He had no idea how much she remembered and he wasn’t going to take any unnecessary risks. There was too much at stake.