All of Us -- Chapter 19

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

“Max, what on earth is this?” Zack asked as he looked down at his plate.

“It’s supposed to be a reheated frozen lasagna,” Max said. “Why?”

“It looks more like something that Zane found on a training mission out in the woods at Manticore back in the summer of ’08,” Zack observed. He poked at the food on his plate with his fork and took a forkful and took a bite. “Though it actually tastes pretty decent.”

Max sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. I thought you were going to tell me that it also tasted like crap. I was never very good at cooking.”

“It could be worse,” Zack said. “It could be Brin attempting to cook. I’m hoping Alec can cook because the three of them are screwed if he can’t.”

“Brin’s a worse cook than I am?” Max asked skeptically. “She actually loves to cook. She told me that.”

“She obviously didn’t tell you how bad she is at it,” Zack said. “When I stopped by her apartment this one time back in September of 2017, I was hungry so I opened her refrigerator to see what she had in there and there was a container of something that looked like a meatloaf and tasted like it had been made in the sewers. It probably would have given an ordinary food poisoning.”

“Yikes.” Max winced. “Please tell me that you threw that out for her.”

“I did,” Zack said. “She wasn’t too happy about it, but she knew that on a scale of one to ten of things I’ve done to make you guys angry over the course of the past twelve years, that didn’t even make the scale.”

“You’ve done a lot, but it’s all in the past,” Max assured him. “It’s time to think about the future.”

“Yeah,” Zack said. He ate his food thoughtfully.

“You’re still hung up on the biological parents being in charge dealio, aren’t you?” Max guessed.

“I know, it’s been two days since we found out, but it’s a huge shock, Maxie,” Zack said. “Even for somebody like you and me, to find out that the people who donated their genetic material so that you could exist, whether they knew exactly what they were doing or not, are not only here but could possibly hurt and or kill you if the situation comes to it is a big shock. You want to hear something weird? Don’t tell Zane or Krit or Wayne this because they’d never let me hear the end of it.” He sighed and looked down at the table for a moment before bringing his gaze back in line with Max’s. “I haven’t asked to be put on sentry duty by the main gate since because I’m scared to look at them. It’s stupid. They’re just two people that I semi-randomly happen to be genetically related to. It’s nothing.”

“You’re entitled to be freaked out about this,” Max said. “There’s nothing anywhere that says that even somebody like you can’t be freaked out by something as big as this. You’ve never met these people before in your life and maybe you won’t at all, but…”

“Exactly,” Zack said. “I know that Becky’s still freaked out about it, but Jeff and her younger siblings are helping her deal with it. She doesn’t know what to do about the general and the colonel either.”

Max nodded. “Can’t even refer to them by name, can you?”

“Not yet,” Zack agreed. “Not yet.”

“Let’s drop the subject for now,” Max said. She saw how agitated Zack was starting to become and she didn’t want to upset him anymore than he already was. “Speaking of our brothers, what are they up to right now?”

Zack gave Max a grateful look. “Krit and Syl are doing something that I don’t think that either of us wants to think about. Wayne’s got a date with an X6 tonight and before you can go nuts, he assured us that she’s eighteen.” He smirked. “I double-checked the database to make sure that he wasn’t lying.” He grinned when he heard Max’s laughter. “She really is eighteen. Zane’s over at Rena’s apartment for dinner tonight. I don’t know what he or Wayne are up to later tonight.” He made a face. “Well, I can guess what or rather who Wayne is going to be doing or at least is hoping who he’ll be doing later tonight.”

“That’s Wayne,” Max pointed out. “Some men take longer than others to go through their single horny bastard phase.”

“Some men don’t go through that phase because they’re lucky enough to fall in love with somebody early on,” Zack said softly.

Max blushed and smiled almost shyly. “Some women are lucky enough to be the ones that those men fall in love with.”

Zack leaned over the table and kissed Max tenderly. “I love you so much, Maxie. I swear that I’ll love you forever.”

“I love you too,” Max said. She felt a tear escape her eye as she felt the emotion behind her words and Zack’s. “I love you so much.”

They sat their silently, both of them too overwhelmed to speak or even to eat. Finally, they both started eating quietly and after another few minutes, Zack started talking again. “I’ve going to teach a class of the older X9s that are here. Martial arts. Fairly basic stuff, at least for us, but that’s where that group was up to. Alec’s still working out the last specifics for when and where classes are and who should take what.”

“I’m a little surprised that some of us are still being trained to some extent,” Max admitted.

“I am too,” Zack said. “But some of the younger ones need it. The older X8s on up are fine with the training that they’ve received so far, but the younger X8s and the X9s and eventually the children that resulted from the breeding program and Little Max when and if it comes to them, they need to be able to defend themselves. Even you can’t argue with that fact.”

“True,” Max conceded. “At least it won’t be as intense or as torturous as what they put us through back at Manticore.”

“Exactly,” Zack said.

“Speaking of intense…” Max said teasingly. Her eyes sparkled playfully. “After we finish our dinner—“

“I’m done.” Zack dropped his fork onto his mostly empty plate, picked up a giggling Max, and practically ran into their bedroom.

TBC