All of Us -- Chapter 36

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 sat down at a desk in the control room in Terminal City, going through the Terminal City database and updating it. Let’s see…of the estimated thirty-five hundred to four thousand survivors of the fire, fifteen hundred of us are now here in T.C. Not bad! She clicked on another page and smirked. Including most of the X9s. I bet White thought that most of them had died in the fire because they’re so young. Thank goodness for those other X-series who were near the X9 barracks and grabbed all of them when the fire broke out. There’s something else to throw in White’s face!

“You look like you’re having fun there, Max,” Alec said from his desk next to hers.

“It’s not horrible,” Max said. “It definitely takes my mind off of everything lately.”

“Yeah, it’s gotta suck finding out that you’re gonna have to have the entire human race,” Alec remarked. “I’m jealous, Maxie. I don’t have a role in saving the world. I feel so left out.”

Max rolled her eyes and reached over and punched him in the arm. “You ass.”

“Knock it off with my ass,” Alec teased.

“Yeah, if Brin hears me talking about your ass, she’ll beat mine to a pulp along with the rest of my body,” Max said. She turned back to her work. After hearing no remark from Alec, she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He looked like he was concentrating on his work but Max swore that she saw a smile on his face. She decided to let the topic rest for now. “Man, I wish that I could get this done and over with.”

“This work updating the database or saving the world?” Alec asked.

“Saving the world,” Max said. “The prophecy said that things would be set into motion when the blood of The Decoy is in the hands of the enemy and when The One and The Guardian unite. White and his friends got a hold of Becky’s blood and we figured out what the prophecy meant by Zack and I uniting. I just wish that it said when Zack and I unite. I know that my next heat is at least five days away, but it didn’t say that would be when we’d ‘unite.’ It could be three months from now in October, it could be six months from now, it could be nine months from now, it could be a year from now, it could even be years from now!” She looked at Alec. “I’m waiting for the ‘can’t wait to have wild animal sex with your boyfriend’ remark.”

“What’s the point in making that remark? You’re obviously being serious,” Alec commented. “Max, don’t worry about it so much. It’ll happen when it’s meant to happen and you can’t force it to happen by acting like this.”

“This is the second time you’ve actually been the voice of reason,” Max said suspiciously.

“This time you can blame it on a lack of sleep,” Alec informed her. “For whatever reason, Tony was up almost all night. I stayed up with him so that Brin could sleep. She wore herself down yesterday trying to keep up with those kids in the nursery.”

Max smiled. The subject’s been dropped long enough! “Speaking of Brin, what’s going on with the two of you?”

“You know what’s going on with Brin and me,” Alec pointed out. “We live in the same apartment and we’re raising our son together. End of story.”

“No, it’s just this particular chapter. The story is far from finished,” Max insisted.

“Are you suggesting that I might actually be in love with Brin?” Alec said.

“Pretty much,” Max said. “I’m not blind.”

Alec sighed. “I think I am in love with her. It’s almost a different feeling with Brin than it was with Rachel, probably because Brin’s different than Rachel. I’m glad that Brin’s as different as she is. How am I supposed to go about it, though?”

“Holy crap,” Max said. “Is this the same man who on his first day at Jam Pony bragged to all of us at Crash that night that he was and never would be at a loss of what to say or do around a woman?” She looked around and saw Becky entering the control room. “Hey, Becky! Didn’t Alec run his mouth the night after his first day at Jam Pony about he always knew what to say or do around women?”

“Yeah, why?” Becky asked.

“Your sister-in-law is nagging me about Brin,” Alec said.

“Max and Zack aren’t married,” Becky reminded him.

“Close enough,” Alec said, shrugging. “Can you get her to quit?”

“Nope,” Becky said.

“Look, Alec, just tell her how you feel,” Max suggested. Brin’s going to be so thrilled! “Brin’s a pretty understanding person. Even if she doesn’t feel the same way that you do about her, she won’t put you down or make you feel bad about it.”

“That’s a good point,” Alec said. “Wow, we’re both making sense. I guess in your case we can blame all of this saving-the-world stress, huh?”

“I guess so,” Max agreed.

“Mind if I join the club?” Becky asked. She sat down in a chair near Max and Alec. “This is driving me up the wall too.”

“Be my guest,” Max said. “I wish I could get this over with.”

“I wish that I knew exactly who I’m supposed to be faking out,” Becky complained. “The prophecy said that you’re supposed to fight The Evil One, whoever that is. I personally think that would include almost every Familiar, with the exception of the ones that follow this real prophecy that seems to be happening. I mean, I love pissing off White but should I waste time pissing him off when I’m supposed to be making somebody else angry?”

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Max said. They were quiet for a moment until Becky grabbed a cloth off of a shelf and started to clean her nine millimeter. “I really don’t get it with you and guns.”

“What? You know as well as any of us that a weapon needs to be properly maintained,” Becky reminded her.

“I know,” Max admitted.

Becky shook her head. “I’m sorry. Don’t mind me, I’m a little slow today.”

“It’s okay,” Max assured Becky. “Everybody has a slow day once in awhile.”

“You need to get over this gun thing, Max,” Alec said.

“Tell me something that I haven’t heard from somebody else before,” Max remarked.

“He’s actually right, though,” Becky said.

“Max, seriously,” Alec said. “You should at least practice with them if you won’t actively use one.” He shrugged. “Do you ever think that you’ll use one again?”

“No,” Max stated.

“Really?” Alec said.

“Maybe if it was the most absolute extreme of extreme circumstances,” Max conceded. “And we are talking really extreme. But if it’s not, then hell fucking no.”

“I guess we’ll take it,” Becky said.

“I guess you will,” Max agreed. She looked at Becky’s gun.

Becky rolled her eyes, but put the gun away. “Okay, okay.”

“Thank you,” Max said. She turned back to her computer and did a double take and started to laugh. “Did you do this, Becky?”

“This is nice,” Alec commented, looking at his own monitor.

“I didn’t do anything,” Becky said. She leaned over to look at their monitors and laughed when she saw that both of their desktop wallpapers were now the picture that Caroline had sent Becky of White when he had seen Caroline and Dennis earlier that day. “I guess that’s why Kevin wanted to borrow my cell phone for awhile this morning.”

“Either that or make some obscene phone calls,” Alec said. Max hit him. “Do I have a ‘punch me’ sign on my arm?”

“Yeah, you do,” Max said sweetly.

TBC