Battles Won and Lost

By LindsayR

Pairing: Max/White

Timeline: Set a year after Freak Nation.

Summary: Not every battle is waged with blood and tears. Sometimes love is a battle of it's own.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Author's Note: My second DA fic. Let me know what you think. I'm usually a Max/Alec shipper, but I can't seem to get the idea of Max and White out of my head.

It was never supposed to be this way.

Hot breath ghosting over her skin. Soft lips brushing against hers. A kiss so soft it burned into her soul.

They were enemies. Fate had decided long ago that they would never be friends. They would spend their lives fighting each other on the battlefield the streets of Seattle had become. Hatred ruled their world

Every movement was gentle, every caress a whisper on her skin, and if this had been their final battle he would have easily won. His hands destroyed her bit by bit every time he touched her, skimming over her golden flesh reverently. She never knew he could be this soft, this whole other person.

She took his son. He tried to make her tell him where Ray was and he never let her forget that he would do whatever it took to get him back. He used every means necessary, even seduction to try to get her to talk. And she gave in every time. A touch here…a kiss there…and it was like she was in heat but only for him.

It's like he's hard wired into her brain. He knows exactly where to touch her, what to do to make her come, over and over until she can do no more than gasp his name. "Ames…."

He doesn't know that she found out his secret, the one thing he never told anyone. His father was the only other one who knew because it was his idea. They took part of her and she didn't know why until Logan found a picture of White's family, his wife. They were so alike in features and coloring they could have been sisters but for the age difference. It was why they chose her.

Every time he slides into her she feels like she is finally home, like with him inside her she's complete. It's crazy and she doesn't understand it. But he's a part of her, whether she likes it or not. And she can't help but respond to his movements, to the feeling of him so deep inside. Every time she comes it's with his name spilling from her lips…. "Oh God!….Ames!" And every time he spills himself deep inside her, tempting fate, risking everything. In the aftermath he always gazes down on her and asks, "Where's my son?"

She won't ever reveal Ray's location despite his father's form of persuasion. Doing that would expose Ray to the cult and she refused to sacrifice him to their whims. She knew what it was like, growing up without freedom, and she wouldn't let it happen to Ray.

It's always the same in the end. She looks away, unable to tell him where Ray is. Sometimes when he's still inside her and waiting for her answer she drifts away, just for a moment to a place where they don't hate, but love, and they're a family, not enemies. Because she loves the man who touches her with soft fingers and gentle kisses. She turns back to him and kisses him. A last kiss, full of everything she feels. She can't tell him where Ray is. Can't tell him she loves him. Can't see him again. And she will never let him know about the child, their child, that is growing inside of her. "He's my son too, Ames." She's revealed his secret and that's all it takes. He's gone, pulling away, leaving her on the bed where they've made love so many times. She won the battle.

She watched him after that. For six months, until she was put on bed rest, she went to him, hidden in the shadows of the night when she knew it was safe. She wanted to let go, didn't want to see the way he paced his room at night, unable to sleep. Didn't want to see his normally smooth face dusted with stubble from not shaving. She wanted to go to him, wanted to tell him, but in the end she couldn't, wouldn't expose herself or her children to that kind of danger. Instead she turned away, headed back to TC. She never saw him standing at the window. She didn't see the look on his face when a beam of moonlight illuminated the soft swell of her stomach to his gaze. She didn't know that he now knew her secret and that a new battle had begun.