Chapter Text
The years since rescuing the colonists had blurred together in the Captain’s mind. In fact she deliberately didn’t keep track of the days after most of her crew decided to leave to get on in their lives. In recent days only Felix and SAM remained consistently on the ship.
Ellie and Nyoka dropped in occasionally with missions of their own or tagging along to make a few extra bits here and there. Parvati had chosen to stay with Junlei on The Groundbreaker where they regularly met to catch up. The only one she’d lost contact with was Vicar Max.
The hardest one to say goodbye to. She’d known from the beginning one day they’d part, he only joined the crew for transport. The fact that he stayed as long as he did had felt like a blessing.
That being said she had hoped their relationship, or whatever it was, would have changed the outcome. He and Nyoka left on the same day. He’d approached her the night before he’d be disembarking when they landed on Monarch the next day.
They had seen the state of the colonies after recent events, and he wanted to go out and help those who needed it. She couldn’t argue that. It was his job, law it was what he felt was his purpose in life.
He’d briefly hugged her, and placed a kiss to her temple as he went down the ramp of the Unreliable, his bag of books hanging off his shoulder. Neither asked when they’d talk again, where they’d be, or if they ever would see one another again. Though she knew the answer would have just been some lecture about the Path. So she let him walk out of her life five years ago, and hadn’t heard more than a passing mention from Felix about the ship being far less grumpy.
So when she went to drown the day’s missions and sorrows in a drink at The Lost Hope, the last thing she expected to see was the Vicar. Scratch that, the last thing she expected to see was the Vicar, with his arm around a well put together woman.
The view made her internally sick. They came in after her, and it only took her moments to identify his voice. She sat contemplating if she had a better chance of being unseen by him if she were to bolt out the door now, or wait him out.
The whiskey in her system convinced her that a mad dash for the door and then her ship would end poorly, so she sat squeezing the bottle in her hand as pieces of his conversation reached her ears.
It was torture. Maybe an example of that snapback Max had always warned her about. Straying from your path causes an inevitable violent snapback. She silently prayed to every deity she could think of that they’d leave soon and wouldn’t notice her.
But of course that’s not how her life works out.
“Al- Captain?” His surprised voice caught her off guard, her whiskey bottle slipping from her hand and rolling across the bar-top, the sound of glass breaking sounds miles away.
“Vicar, nice to see you,” she responds with a strained smile.
“And you,” he says softly, placing his hand on the bar near her own. “What are you doing here?”
“Maximillian, who’s this?” a shrill voice interrupts before she can answer his question. The woman from earlier pushes her way in between the two with a predatory smile.
“A-ah yes, this is Captain Alex Hawthorne,” he says quickly. “Captain of the Unreliable, the ship I mentioned before.”
“Of course, the piece of junk ship I saw in the dock today must be the one. And the Captain that thoughtlessly weaves her way through the plan.”
Alex narrows her eyes briefly, noticing Max stiffen at her words. “She’s not the prettiest ship, but she gets us where we need to go.”
“I see. Well Maximillian are you going to introduce me?” she insists.
“Captain, this is… my partner,” he says briefly, his eyes not meeting her own as he says it.
“I’m happy for you,” she says with a bitter smile. “Moving on is good.”
“Moving on?” the woman asks questioningly, “From what?”
Alex freezes as her eyes flicker over to Max, to see a guilty look on his face, confirming his partner hadn’t known.
“I- I apologize, I thought you knew, I should probably-“ Alex rambles as she tries to back away from the pair when she snatches her arm.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, uh, I think that’s more the Vicar’s place to say than mine,” she tries helplessly as she works on freeing her arm.
The woman’s hold tightens as she turns to Max, “What does she mean?”
The man sighs heavily before awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, “The Captain and I… had a relationship of certain sorts while I was aboard the ship.”
The vice grip on Alex’s arm seemed to intensify tenfold at Max’s words, and she found the deadly glare trained back on her, looking her up and down, unimpressed.
“Far too young for him dear,” she clicks her tongue disapprovingly.
“I’d like to think other things are more important,” Alex says nonchalantly, trying to hold back her own anger.
“When you flaunt it around like a hussy, they aren’t going for you for your brains, dear,” the last word dripping in venom.
“I am not some two-bit slut giving it out to any man that meanders onto my ship!” Alex finally shouts back, ripping her arm from the woman’s grasp. “You know nothing about me!”
“I know that you’re too young, you look ragged and like you’ve lived in the woods for years. Covered in scars and is that dirt? Architect knows if you even follow the Law, you probably strayed from your path years ago. You’re a regular ruffian that won’t finish out this decade alive.”
“Is that right?” Alex taunts, crossing her arms. “Max didn’t seem to mind.”
Before she can react, Alex feels the blow of the woman’s fist connecting with her jaw. The bar patrons crowding around as Max grabbed the woman to hold her back as Alex tentatively rubs where the fist made contact.
Ignoring the offending woman, she simply looks up at Max, “If this is what your Path has predestined for you, I wish you good luck, Vicar.” Turning on her heel she races out of the bar before she could hear a reply.
Tears prickling at her eyes and her jaw aching, she finds herself at her old spot on the loading bay on top of the cargo crates. She sits listening to the sounds of ships nearby humming, the workers down below, and lets her mind wander back to escape the scene she’d just been in.
After a few minutes she picks up the sound of someone else climbing and the cargo crates below her. The closer they got, she picked up his breathing and immediately recognized her visitor as the Vicar himself.
“What are you doing here?” she asks without opening her eyes.
“Coming to inspect the cargo, what the fuck do you think I’m doing?” his breath hitches as he gets to the crate below her.
Her eyes finally open to see him struggling with something in his hand as he tries to climb up the last crate. “Struggling a bit are we?”
“Take this,” he scowls, thrusting a bottle of whiskey at her. “I’m not getting younger, and I don’t chase you around Halcyon everyday anymore.”
She takes the bottle and watches as he pulls himself up onto her crate, settling himself beside her in silence. She uses the edge of the crate to pop the top off the whiskey and takes a swig before handing it back over to Max. “Why’d you come here?”
“To check on you,” he admits, taking a drink himself. “And to have a drink with you.”
“I see,” she mumbles, looking down at the wood beneath her. “I don’t think your… partner would be pleased that you met me down on the cargo bay. Making me look more like the two-bit whore than I already do evidently.”
She hears a heavy sigh before feeling his fingertips on her chin, “Let me see your face.”
Alex complies easily, letting herself enjoy the moment of his touch. He strokes his fingers over her jaw, his expression grim as he presses gingerly in the area starting to swell.
“What’s the damage?” she asks in a teasing tone, trying to still her racing heart as his green eyes bare into her own.
“Swelling,” he mutters, and swipes a thumb over her lip, eliciting a quiet groan from her throat.
Her cheeks flush as his eyes widen, and a small smirk graces his lips. “I was wiping away blood.”
“Of course,” she replies faster than necessary. “I knew that.”
His other hand goes to cup her other cheek, causing him to cradle her head in his hands as the two look at one another questioningly.
“I’ve missed you,” he admits, his own face moving close to hers.
She turns her head in his grip to let all it’s weight rest on his palm, “Your girlfriend is probably waiting for you.”
“I ended it,” he responds simply as his fingertips trace across her cheek. “Do you really think I’d want to stay with that woman after that display? And she assaulted my Captain.”
“From what I got, she’s really into her religion and has a temper, sounds like your true match.”
A soft chuckle leaves his lips and he leans forward, his breath playing on her lips as he responds, “You need someone that makes you a better person. The water to my fire so to speak. And the Architect just put you in my Path once again.”
“I’m in your path?” she asks quietly, afraid to speak any louder and break the trance.
“Of all the places to show up in Halcyon, at all the times, you were there. By the Law, you always seem to end up back in my life.”
“What are you going to do about it?” she whispers, her eyes flickering down to his lips before back up to his own.
Immediately following her words, his lips are on hers. Soft but urgent. The taste of aged whiskey on his tongue, and his overwhelming scent that is distinctly Max. Her arms wrap around his torso as if by instinct, her hands gripping his strong shoulder blades trying to pull him ever closer, “Max.”
“Alex,” he breathes out as his lips lift from her own. His face is flushed, and his usually perfect hair is already falling. Her favorite sight, one she didn’t think she’d ever have the pleasure of seeing again.
“Still just as handsome,” she muses as her fingertips lightly stroke his back.
His cheeks turn ever redder at her praise, pressing his forehead to hers he sighs, “I don’t deserve your kind words.”
“Is it kind words when I’m just stating the obvious truth?” she teases, as she strokes the base of his neck.
A shiver runs down his spine at her touch, “Coming from one of the Grand Architect’s finer creations, I’ll allow it.”
He watches as her expression darkens, her brows furrowing and her arms falling from his frame, “Isn’t this… a little fast?”
He raises a brow incredulously, “Need I remind you that I’ve seen you come undone in the midst of pleasure more times than I can recall Alex?”
The tips of her ears reddening she gently smacks his arm, “That’s not what I meant Max. Not an hour ago your arm was around a woman you’d tied yourself to. Now… you're here. We’re here. Doing this. She’s not… right is she?”
All hints of humor drop from his face as he realizes she’s serious. Her eyes flicker away from him, shame written on her features. “What do you believe she’s right about?”
“Is that what I am to you?” she manages to stammer out. “If it is… I-I can’t do this again Max,” she pushes herself away from him, climbing to her feet as she puts distance between them. “I can’t do this again if it’s not serious to you Max. I can’t get attached again. I can’t lose you again.”
Max scrambles to his knees, grabbing hold of her leg as she walked toward the edge of the crate, her expression mixed as she looks down at his face.
“Law knows I’ve made mistakes in my life Alex, but you aren’t one,” he insists. “When you turned around in that bar… and we came face-to-face. Time froze like your fucking time dilation. After I left the ship, I felt like I left a part of me on it. I tried to fill it with my Vicar duties. I tried to fill it with someone else. I thought I had a livable situation, that it was my path. Then you came into that fucking bar and snapped me back into place. I stood there between the choice I thought was right for my path in life, and the only person that never gave up on me.”
“When she hit you… it shattered any illusion of choice, it was more than obvious where I want to be and where I belong,” he adds.
“What do you want Max?” she asks, her eyes finally meeting his.
He’s silent for a moment, gaining his confidence, “To go back to the Unreliable. To be with you. To protect you. To see where this takes us.”
His heart sinks as she pulls her leg out of his grip, preparing himself for her rejection, when she suddenly offers him her hand.
He glances between her hand and her face, a smile spreading across her face, “Are you coming or not?”
A similar smile makes it’s way to his face as he accepts her hand and he stands before her, “My services are yours Captain.”
“What about your heart?” she teases as she looks out on the ships in the docking bay.
“That my dear captain,” he turns her head gently back toward him, “Has always been yours.”