His Fight -- Chapter 6

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Alec, Logan, 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 (Brenda/X5-008, etc.).

Notes:  Spoiler-ish stuff for “Freak Nation.”

As quietly as I could, I opened the tunnel exit just enough for me to have a quick look around to see if anybody was in the room. Thank goodness it was clear. I quickly opened the exit the rest of the way and pulled myself up into the room in an abandoned building somewhere on the outskirts of Seattle. I waited a moment for Brenda to pull herself up and out of the tunnel before I shut the exit and we left the building. “Why couldn’t Max have gone to do this? Logan is her boyfriend. I thought that she’d want to spend every possible moment with him since they got the virus cured last week.”

“She went into heat this morning, remember?” Brenda reminded me. “That’s why I volunteered to go with you instead of Max. Besides, you were going to go anyway.”

“I know,” I said. “Hey, maybe it won’t be as bad because Max isn’t going. I won’t have to see Logan making those puppy dog eyes at her and have to fight the urge to yark every second.”

“You really are unbelievable,” Brenda said. She rolled her eyes. “How did I manage to spend more than two decades in the same unit with you without losing my mind?” We walked up the steps of Josh’s old house and Brenda rang the doorbell. We heard footsteps approaching and then the door opened and there stood the man himself.

“Hello, Alec,” he said politely. He turned to Brenda. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe that we’ve met before.”

“Logan, this is a unit mate of mine, Brenda a.k.a. X5-008,” I said. “Brenda, this is Logan Cale a.k.a. Eyes Only and Max’s boyfriend.”

“Pleasure to finally meet you,” Brenda said. “Max has told me a lot about you.”

“Thank you,” Logan said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Brenda.” He stepped aside so we could walk in and then he closed the door behind us once Brenda and I were in the living room. “Speaking of Max, where is she? I thought that she was going to come here.”

“I guess that would explain the smell of spaghetti,” I remarked. Looks like Logie-boy was planning on having a nice romantic candlelit dinner for two. Sucks to be him. “Max went into heat this morning so she couldn’t risk even leaving her apartment, much less Terminal City.” I shrugged. “Didn’t she call you to let you know?” That actually did surprise me a little. Maybe Max had let at least a little bit of our argument from last week sink through her head.

“No,” Logan said. “I haven’t heard from her since yesterday.” Ooooh, you’ve gone a whole day without hearing from your girlfriend. Do you want a medal? He sighed and tried to look happy or at least not like a miserable idiot. “I made plenty of spaghetti. Since Max isn’t here, would either of you like to join me for some dinner?” I do have to give the guy credit for his manners.

“Cool, thanks,” I said.

“That would be great,” Brenda said. “Max has told me about how well you cook. I’ve been practically craving your food ever since the first time she talked about it.” She turned to me. “What do you think, Alec? Should we get the stuff that Logan has for us first or should we have dinner before we get that done?” I saw the look in her eyes and I grinned. Brenda knew me as well as anybody did for sure.

“I guess that it would make more sense for us to eat first before we get what else Logan has to offer,” I said. “I always hated to work on an empty stomach, anyway.” Logan led us to the dining room. I looked around and whistled. “Not bad, Logan. I thought Josh had the place pretty well cleaned up when he first shacked up here, but you’ve really put the finishing touches on it.”

“Thank you,” Logan said. He quickly set out a third place setting and served us our food. I dug in. Okay, he can definitely cook. I missed scamming a meal or two from him whenever I would tag along with Max to see him. This beat the crap that we eat everyday back in T.C. by a mile and then some.

“This is really good,” Brenda said. She ate another mouthful of her spaghetti. “I’m really impressed.”

“Thanks,” Logan said. “I’m glad that you like it.”

“Yeah, this is great stuff,” I said.

“Thank you, Alec,” Logan said. He was definitely not quite as friendly as when he’d thanked Brenda for her compliment. I don’t think an ordinary like him would have noticed. I glanced over at Brenda and I could tell that she had also picked up on it. She looked mildly amused but she didn’t say a word. “So, Brenda, what do you do?”

“Right now, I do my share of work around Terminal City and I’m also the mother of a one-year-old son courtesy of the breeding program and my breeding partner,” Brenda replied.

“What about before Terminal City and everything?” Logan asked. “After the broadcast that led to the fire.”

“Well, I was pregnant during the time between when Manticore burned to the ground after that broadcast of yours and the Jam Pony hostage crisis,” Brenda said. I caught the edge in her voice and I wasn’t quite sure whether to laugh out loud or to punch Logan. Brenda had told me when she’d arrived in Terminal City that she’d barely managed to make it out of Manticore alive. “I got to Terminal City four days after the hostage situation and I gave birth two days afterwards, so I really wasn’t able to do much for the following couple of weeks when my son was so young. Before then, while I was still at Manticore, I was the explosives specialist in Alec’s and my unit. I actually specialized in weapons and ordinance of all types as well as in strategy.”

“Were you the commanding officer?” Logan asked.

“No,” Brenda said. She pointed to me. “Alec was our commanding officer. He was one of the top soldiers in the facility that we grew up in, actually.” Logan blinked and I grinned. Did I forget to tell Logan about what my rank was back at Manticore? Ooops. He was completely blindsided by that little nugget of information.

“You’re telling me that Alec was a commanding officer back at Manticore?” he said in disbelief. I felt myself getting defensive. Just because I don’t act like I have Mole’s shotgun stuffed up my ass all of the time does not mean that I am in anyway not a great leader. I happen to believe that it’s not good if you’re unusually stiff and unrelenting at all times. Trust me on this. I’ve seen guys and girls like that back at Manticore and they were usually the ones to implode or explode first.

Brenda was almost as defensive as I was. “Yes, he was a commanding officer and he was my commanding officer as well. Don’t let the relaxed attitude fool you, Logan. Alec told me about what happened at Jam Pony and what happened, even after he took one in the arm. I’ve seen him in plenty of battles and on several other missions and I’ve never seen anybody be cooler under fire than him.”

“I’m sorry,” Logan apologized.               

“It’s okay,” I said. “No harm, no foul.”

“Likewise,” Brenda said. We quietly finished our dinner before we went back into the living room. “So, where’s the stuff that Max said you have for us?”

“Give me a moment,” Logan said. He went upstairs and came back with a box shortly afterwards. “The paper records and the discs containing the computer records that Asha had found are all in here.” He handed the box to me.

“Thanks,” I said honestly. “This is really going to be a big help to us.”

“No problem,” Logan said. He sighed. “I’m really worried about Max. It’s not like her not to go this long without calling me. Even when she still had the virus in her system, we talked at least once or twice a day and we haven’t talked at all yet today.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that before,” I remarked.

Logan glared at me for a moment. “I know that. But I’m worried.”

“Logan, she’s in heat,” Brenda pointed out. “Trust me, it is harder than you can imagine for a female X5 to stay sane while she is in heat, especially knowing that there are plenty of potentially ready, willing, and able males in the immediate vicinity. She needs all of the focus and concentration that she can get right now and no offense or anything, a phone conversation with you could very well be a distraction to her.”

“Oh,” Logan said. “Still…”

“Don’t sweat it, Logan ol’ pal,” I said. I patted him on the back. “Just take a load off. She’ll call you again when she’s recovered from her heat-induced lack of sanity.” I nodded towards Brenda and we walked out of the house and headed back towards Terminal City. When we were back in the tunnel again, I turned to her. “Well? What do you think of Logan?”

“He tries to be nice, but I wish that he wouldn’t shove his foot in his mouth every other sentence,” Brenda said. “It never ceases to amaze me how some people can be smart one minute and complete idiots the next. I believe Max when she tells me how smart Logan is and everything, but that smart guy wasn’t exactly the person that I met just now.”

“That’s our Logan,” I agreed.