Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, they belong to James Cameron and co. yadda, yadda, yadda.

She was gone. He couldn't believe it, even after all this time it caused an ache in his heart. She was gone and it was all his fault.

/Flashback/

2 months ago

Max walked up to Alec, it had been a month since the siege had ended, Terminal City was progressing fine on it's own. Transgenics were being acknowledged as citizens and slowly being accepted by the community. Everything finally seemed to be going on track, but Max had to talk to Alec about something personal. She quickly explained to him that she needed to talk to him later and was it okay is she swung by his apartment that night?

Alec agreed and Max walked off.

Later that night Max walked into his apartment. She hadn't knocked; she never did and saw no reason to begin that night. Later on she would wish she had at the site that met her eyes. Alec was on the sofa with a leggy blonde partly on top of him, topless, with her hand creeping into his pants.

Max cleared her throat. The two spun around and Alec's eyes widened as he remembered their conversation that morning. The girl stared between the two of them, and then removed her hand from Alec's groin, quietly put on her top and slipped out of the apartment.

Max just stared at Alec, the irony of the scene she'd just walked in on, and what she wanted to talk about not lost on her. Alec zipped up his fly and, in an attempt to regain his dignity, broke the silence "So, you wanted to talk to me about something Maxie?"

She looked him over blonde-brown hair slightly mussed, green eyes panicked and curious, a body to die for, and almost felt her heart break. "Yeah," she softly agreed "I wanted to talk about something personal something to do with you."

Max moved away from the doorway and walked over to him, she captured his face in her hands and softly kissed him, kissed him like her life depended on it, and then she pulled away. She looked at him, into his eyes and wanted to cry. His eyes were a stormy green now, clouded with confusion, and blazing with more than a touch of anger. "Max? What the Hell-"

She interrupted him, "Alec, I love you." She smiled sadly, as he shook his head in denial. Then she let him go, and walked out the door. "Goodbye" she said it so softly that even as a transgenic he barely heard her.

Throughout the next week he avoided her, scampering off whenever she went near him, although constantly sending her confused glances. At the end of the week it was only by chance that he heard Mole telling Dix that he couldn't believe she was going either.

Alec dropped by her, and Original Cindy's apartment. She had a place in T.C. but stayed here whenever she could. She was hugging OC goodbye outside of the apartment. He caught up to her "Where are you going?" he asked her.

Max froze the acidic reply she wanted to make on her tongue 'oh, so now you're talking to me?' and instead simply answered "Away."

"Away?" Alec's voice was laced with shock and disbelief "Why? T.C. needs you."

"T.C. does not need me, and if they do they will be able to contact me. The familiars are gone, they're in hiding, and the transgenics are adjusting just fine. The rest of you can handle what is going on, Alec. Mole, Luke, Dix, Joshue, Kyli, Mel, Vin, and you will do just fine without me for awhile."

"But you're our leader!"

"Who is going on a sabbatical" she patiently explained. "You guys don't need me, and if you do, you can contact me. Others transgenics however, do. I have no reason to stay."

Alec grasped at straws "What about O.C.? Joshua? Gem and little Hope? Sketchy? Are you just going to leave them?"

"I can keep in touch with O.C. and occasionally drop by to visit her and T.C.. Joshua understands, and he has responsibilities now, he can take care of himself, and I can keep in touch with him as well. Gem, and her baby Hope? Gem says she's happy to see me doing something for myself, and that if I drop by occasionally and keep in touch she's cool with it. Sketchy has a job as a journalist now to get the truth out, and says I deserve a break, but I better come back to visit. I have no reason to stay." Max repeated.

'What about me?' Alec inwardly screamed before he pushed that thought down. She hadn't even come to tell him goodbye. "So I guess this is goodbye, huh?"

"Yup."

He looked at the backpack on her slim shoulders and at her Ninja. "where's the rest of your stuff?"

"Cindy will send some of my stuff to me if I decide to settle down anywhere for awhile, but says she refuses to get a new roommate, either I come back or she keeps the apartment to herself. As for the apartment in T.C. Mole, Joshua, Gem, Kyli, Dix, and all the others refuse to let me give it to somebody else. I'm still their leader, and I still have my own place in T.C."

Alec couldn't find anything to say. Max smiled softly, and a little bit sadly, up at him "Goodbye, Alec."

Still in shock he watched her climb onto her Ninja and drive off.

/End of Flashback/

Alec inwardly cursed at himself. He had let the love of his life walk out of his life thinking she meant nothing to him. Hell! He had let her walk out!

Not long after she had left he had slept with a different woman every night, trying to convince himself he felt nothing for her other than the loss of a friend. This worked for about three weeks, until one night when he climaxed and screamed out Max's name.

No one at Terminal City had said anything, although some of Max's closer friends had been noticeably colder towards him. He didn't care. Even with his mask of "I'm always alright" it was obvious that he wasn't, that he was miserable. And it wasn't even like he could get drunk and forget about her, because he was transgenic, his metabolism was too high.

He pictured her in his mind: the soft carnelian lips, the finely boned face, flawless caramel skin, Big doe brown eyes, flashing with anger, with passion, with love, and when she had left, with pain. He pictured her long mahogany hair, barely layered, shining in the sunlight and falling down her back and chest, to slightly obscure her chest. The small slender body that could do so much damage to an opponent, the flat and slender stomach he occasionally glimpsed when she stretched and her shirt rode up. Her presence haunted him.

If he thought she would come back, he would have done anything. Anything to make her come back.

"Max," He softly offered up to the night. "I need you. I'm sorry."