Dysfunctional -- Chapter 19

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Alec, Biggs, Renfro, 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 (X5-121, etc.).

“1, 2, 3, 4...1, 2, 3, 4…good, that’s very good,” the instructor said to the class of X5s learning ballroom dancing three weeks later. She hit the stop button on the sound system and the music stopped. “I think that it’s safe to say that all of you have that dance down. Next we’re going to work on the Lambada. I’m assuming that all of you have read the reading materials that you were given after the end of the previous class last week about the mechanics of the dance?”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” the X5s replied.

“Good,” the instructor said, smiling. “Let’s see how well you read and how much you remembered from the last class. I want two pairs to come up first and show me how much you’ve improved.” She looked around. “How about 318 and 446 and 864 and 975?” The two pairs she’d named walked to the center of the room and the instructor changed the CDs in the player and started the music and she and the rest of the X5s watched the two pairs.

“It’s really amazing,” 494 remarked as he, 511, 121, and 228 watched the two pairs dance. “It is absolutely mind boggling how somebody who is engineered and born with feline DNA can have so sense of rhythm whatsoever.”

121 rolled her eyes and after she made sure that the instructor wasn’t watching, reached over and smacked 494 across the back of his head. “Dipshit. 318 can’t help it if they threw at least one gene in her cocktail from somebody who is rhythmically-challenged.”

“Rhythmically-challenged?” 494 teased.

“Shut up,” 121 said, but she grinned. “You know what I mean. Besides, you are one to talk, 494. Remember when we learned how to cook when we were sixteen? When they were teaching us how to bake cookies, you were the one who set off the smoke detector in the freaking room and got all of us drenched because of the sprinkler.”

“That wasn’t me, that was 107. I was the one who made the Vomit Chili.” 494 smirked. “Looked like vomit, tasted like vomit, and it probably would have made the trainer vomit if he’d tasted it.”

“You’re disgusting,” 228 told him.

“Proud of it,” 494 bragged.

“Speaking of proud of it,” 511 began to say, turning to look at his girlfriend somewhat suspiciously. “I think that 121 owes us an explanation as to why she was looking so damn smug at breakfast earlier this morning.”

“Sure,” 121 said. “You guys know that I missed lineup and roll call this morning because Director Renfro called me into her office, right?” She saw the other three nod. “She was letting me know that I was being assigned to another mission since I had to pass on the L.A. mission because of the knee injury.” She grinned. “Guess who’s shipping out to the Caribbean in five days for an entire month?”

494’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding me. You’re going out there for an entire month? Why?”

“To piss you off,” 121 replied. She grinned. “Seriously, the basics of it are that I’ve got to keep an eye on some businessmen down there while they are on their vacation.” She laughed. “This is going to be much better than the assignment that I had to give up.”

“It sounds like it,” 511 commented. “So, why didn’t you say anything about it when we were at breakfast?”

“It wasn’t going to be fun,” 121 said. “714 is still down in California and she won’t be getting back until after I’m scheduled to leave, 908 is locked up in isolation because she’s in heat so out of the three psycho bitches, only 786 was at breakfast today. It’s much more fun to drop something like this on them if the three of them are together so that I can see the horror on their faces multiplied by three. It’s great, it really is. The more of them that are in the same place at the same time, the more pissed off they get when I say or do something. They really seem to feed off each other sometimes.”

228 laughed. “You are so bad, 121.”

121 smiled smugly. “Proud of it, 228.”

“That was very good,” the instructor said. “318, you need to pick it up a little bit. You were having a hard time keeping up with 446. Try to watch it for next time, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” 318 promised.

“Next two pairs,” the instructor ordered. She looked the X5s over once again. “121 and 511 and 228 and 494.” She waited for the four of them to take their places in the center of the room before she re-started the music. When she stopped the music several minutes later, she was beaming with approval. “Wonderful! All of you did a great job. 511 and 121, you really captured what this dance is all about. Did you see the chemistry that you need to portray when you are dancing the Lambada? That is how it is done. You may sit back down.” The four of them saluted the instructor and then returned to where they’d been sitting before.

“Yeah, nice job,” 494 said. “You two looked like you were this close from fucking each other in public.”

“Hey, you read that book. It’s not called the forbidden dance for nothing,” 121 reminded her friend.

“You haven’t gotten laid in awhile, have you?” 511 remarked, his voice filled with mock sympathy.

“I refuse to dignify that with an answer,” 494 told him.

“Whatever you want to say, buddy, whatever you want to say,” 511 said.

“As a matter of fact, I have plans for tonight,” 494 said. “Did you see the new nurse down in the infirmary? She’s gonna—“

“I know that I don’t want to hear what you want to do with that poor nurse tonight and I’ve got a pretty good feeling that 228 doesn’t want to know either,” 121 interrupted.

“Okay, okay, okay.” 494 grinned mischievously. “Why not, 121? It’s not like it won’t be anything that we didn’t do.”

“Exactly,” 121 said sweetly. 511 and 228 caught onto what 121 was trying to get across and had to cover their mouths so they wouldn’t laugh out loud. 494 shook his head.

“I’m deeply hurt, 121,” he told her, pretending to be disappointment. “I really, truly am.”

“Oh, you’ll get over it,” 511 said. He grinned and slapped 494 on the back.

“I might,” 494 conceded. “Especially if I get a little help from 228. What do you say, wanna give me a kiss and make it all better?”

“Is it physically possible to kiss a bruised ego?” 228 teased.

494 shook his head. “Is it written down somewhere that I have to be ridiculed this morning?”

“Oh yeah, didn’t you see it?” 511 said. “It was right there when we got our schedules for today. From 0915 until 1115, 494, 511, 121, 107, and 304 have Mission Skills—Ballroom Dancing/Insulting 494 in Room 27.”

“How could I have missed that?” 494 deadpanned.

TBC