All of Us -- Chapter 7

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.).

“It’s the six of us girls, no boys in sight,” Jondy said happily, stretching her legs as she sat on the floor in the master bedroom in Max and Zack’s apartment. “The four of them are doing some kind of bonding thing that I don’t want to think about though it’s probably them sitting around and drinking beer and the kids are in the nursery. Now, what can we do to amuse ourselves?”

“I know what we can do,” Syl said. Her eyes glittered wickedly. “Six sisters, no brothers in sight…”

“Slumber party?” Brin guessed.

“You read my mind,” Syl confirmed. She grinned.

“I don’t know,” Max said hesitantly. “I never really got the whole slumber party deal.”

“It’ll be fun,” Syl assured her. “Basically, we just sit around in our pajamas and we watch movies and talk about stuff that makes boys squeamish. We do each other’s hair and makeup and stuff like that. It’s pretty much a female bonding ritual.”

“Do we really need to be in our pajamas for that?” Jace wondered. “We’re all here and there are no men around. Why do we have to go through the trouble of going back to our apartments and getting changed into our pajamas and coming back here?”

“Soilsport,” Syl said, sticking her tongue out at Jace.

“She’s got something of a point,” Rena said. “We can still watch movies and talk about the stuff that will make the guys go running for the hills.” She grinned. “There’s one question that absolutely must be asked at any slumber party. Who was your first?”

“Guy you’ve had sex with or kissed?” Max asked.

Rena shrugged. “Both, I guess. So how about it, Maxie? Who was your first?”

“Let me think,” Max said. She paused. “The first guy I ever had sex with was this guy that I had dated for a few months when I was living in San Francisco. I was about sixteen at the time. He was pretty cute. Kinda tall, brown hair, nice eyes, but he had this tendency to pick his teeth in public when we’d go out to eat with out using a toothpick or at least trying to hide it. That was kind of disgusting.”

Jondy’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, I dated that guy, too! I met him a few weeks after I got into San Francisco and we dated for about a month.”

“Damn,” Max said. “First I find out that you snagged my old bike and now I find out that we both dated this guy. Unbelievable.” She shook her head. “So, Rena? How about your firsts?”

“First guy I had sex with was a boyfriend of mine when I was in high school when I was about fourteen,” Rena informed them. “The first guy I ever kissed…” She trailed off and blushed. “…was Zane.”

“Zane? Are you kidding me?” Syl said.

“I swear I’m not kidding you,” Rena said. “It was the night of the Pulse. Most of you know that Zack had paired us together when we’d escaped. Zane and I were living in Virginia at the time sort of close to D.C. The town that we were living in was on the ocean and it was pretty warm for that time of the year so we’d gone for a night swim, or at least Zane went swimming while I sat on the beach and made fun of him. After he was done, we’d left the beach and were trying to figure out where to go for a late dinner when we had to duck the hell out of the way because this neon sign that was above us had shorted out and was showering sparks like mad. We saw that there’s been some kind of blackout so we sat down on the sidewalk and took out our portable radio and turned it on and waited for some kind of news. Then we got into a conversation about stuff that we were looking forward to doing and I’d mentioned that I was looking forward to getting my first kiss and after a minute Zane said something like ‘let’s get it over with’ and he offered to kiss me and I said yes and he kissed me on the lips.” She smiled. “It didn’t last very long, but it was…something good. I didn’t know quite the right words to describe it at the time, but I knew that I had liked it and I thought or at least I’d hoped that Zane had liked it, too.” She rolled her eyes. “Then we’d heard on the news about the terrorists setting off the Pulse and that ruined the moment and we didn’t think about it too much after that.”

“Oooooh, Rena likes Zane! Rena likes Zane!” Syl teased.

“Oh, grow up Syl,” Rena said. “That was almost twelve years ago and it was one kiss. We were kids. Big freaking deal.”

“Big freaking deal? I saw the way that you looked at Zane when he arrived here last week and you came over here after you got your elbow looked at,” Brin pointed out. “You were a hair away from giving him a nice big smooch.”

“That’s a load of bull,” Rena protested. “I was not.”

“Au contraire, dear sister,” Jondy said. “You have been giving him these looks behind his back when you think nobody’s looking. Okay, maybe you aren’t even aware that you were doing that, but trust me, you were.”

“Liar,” Rena sang.

“Okay, okay, let’s leave Rena alone,” Max said, snickering. “I’m sure that we can all humiliate her with this later. Who’s got the next question?”

“I’ve got it,” Jondy said. “What was the stupidest thing you’ve ever done post-escape? I guess you can answer this one too, Jace. Either after we escaped or after Maxie helped you leave.”

“Gotten caught or not gotten caught?” Max asked.

“Not gotten caught,” Jondy said. “How about…Syl. What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done post-escape and not gotten caught at it?”

“That’s a tough one,” Syl said. “I’ve done a few stupid things between leaving Manticore and now.”

“She admits it! It’s a miracle! It’s a miracle!” Rena cheered. She fell to her knees and pretended to cry. “I can’t believe it. I never thought that I would see the day when Syl would admit that she’s done stupid things in her lifetime. Oh, somebody give me a tissue. This is overwhelming.”

“Shut up,” Syl said. She slapped Rena across the back of her head. “I’m willing to bet that no matter how many stupid things I’ve done, they can’t compare to how many dumb things that you’ve done.”

“Does doing them while running for my life count?” Rena asked.

“Nope,” Jondy said. “Besides, I asked Syl the question and she still hasn’t answered it yet. Oh yeah, and banging a random guy while you’re in heat doesn’t count. That just goes with the territory.”

“So it’s just dumb in general, then?” Syl asked.

“Yeah,” Jondy said. “Go ahead, sis.”

“Then I guess it would have to be the time—“ Syl was cut off when she heard Rena trying to sneak off to the bathroom with her purse. “Rena, I swear if you try to soak that thing in water and ruin it, I will do a lot more than screw up your elbow this time.”

“Damn.” Rena walked back over to Syl and handed her the purse and sat back down on the floor. “I knew I should have been quieter.”

“Sucks to be you,” Syl said. She stuck her tongue out at Rena and turned to Jondy. “How about we try another question?”

“Sure,” Jondy agreed. “Have any of you slept with a random guy when you were in heat but then actually went on to have something of a normal relationship with him, whether it was friendship or romantic or whatever. Anybody?”

Brin raised her hand. “I was in heat the night that Anthony was conceived. Does that count?”

“I guess so,” Jondy said. “You slept with Alec and you guys are friends…” She saw the look on Brin’s face but this time let it go. “…so it sounds like it counts.” She looked thoughtful. “Was the sex good?”

“Jondy,” Jace complained, rolling her eyes.

“Come on, Jace,” Jondy said. “Speaking for those of us here that have not had sex with a fellow X5 and unless I’m mistaken that includes you, I think that we all deserve to know if it’s better than sex with an ordinary human male which I know that we’ve all had. Spill it, Brin. How good was Alec in bed?”

“I’m not telling,” Brin insisted. She smirked.

“I knew it! He was great in bed,” Jondy said triumphantly. “I know you too well, Brin, and you haven’t changed a bit.”

“Hey, you know that when you’re in heat you lose track of everything when you’re getting busy,” Brin said.

“Not really,” Max countered. “It was never that way for me, but I haven’t had sex with Zack when I’ve been in heat yet. We’re kind of trying to avoid that.”

“Moving on,” Brin said loudly. The other giggled and she smiled. “Jace, when was the first time that you realized that you loved Victor?”

“It was probably this one time about two-and-a-half years ago,” Jace said. “I’d known Victor sort-of personally for about three months already, ever since he started working at Manticore. I’d have to go to the labs and get blood drawn or get meds for something or another, you know how it goes. I never liked getting blood drawn. I still don’t. I’m almost as bad about it as Parker used to be. You guys remember how much he hated getting blood taken, don’t you? Anyway, this one day I had to go get blood drawn because this one entire unit of X8s had somehow managed to get sick with some kind of virus when they were out training in the woods and since my unit—I was re-assigned to Unit 1 after you guys left and I stayed behind—had been in the woods with the X8s leading the exercise that we were running and none of us had gotten sick, they wanted to see if there was something maybe in our immune systems that somehow was missing from theirs. The point is, I go down to the lab and fortunately for me, it was Victor who would be the one who would draw my blood. I sat down in the chair and he saw how I was tensing as he was tying the tourniquet on and he just made this joke. It was the one about the duck going into the store asking for grapes. Have any of you heard that one? Anyway, Victor told me the joke and I’d heard the joke before when I was out on a mission and it didn’t strike me as funny then, but when Victor told it to me, I started laughing. It was the first time since Zane had joked around with all of us the morning of the day that Jack died that I had laughed at a joke. I looked into his eyes as he was taking the blood and all of a sudden, everything faded away and it was just the two of us and that was all she wrote.” She sighed happily.

“That’s actually really romantic, Jace,” Syl told her. “You guys will be together again. I’m sure you will be.”

“Yeah,” Max said. “Keep up the hope.”

“Yeah,” Rena echoed. She narrowed her eyes. “You said that Zane was the last guy before Victor to make you laugh.”

“I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” Syl said triumphantly. “I knew that Rena wants Zane in the worst way.”

“Relax, Rena,” Jace assured her. She grinned. “Wayne and Kenny would also make me laugh on a regular basis when we were kids. There’s nothing special about Zane…” She trailed off and waited for Rena’s reaction, snickering.

“You’re just baiting me and it won’t work,” Rena said smugly.

Max coughed. “Bullshit.”

“I am not admitting a thing,” Rena said.

“Ha! You just admitted that there was something to admit!” Jondy said gleefully. “How much do you guys want to bet that Zane—“ She was cut off by the pillow that Rena had swiped from the bed and hurled right in her face. The others laughed, and after a moment, so did Jondy and Rena. “Nice shot, sis.”

“I thought so,” Rena said. She grinned. “Next question. Who…”

TBC