Letters

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.

Notes:  This is not a sequel to “Mornings Are Not My Friend” or any of my other fics.

Alec stood by Dix’s computer terminal in the T.C. control room, chatting about the crowd outside the gates. “…and I agree, they’re worse than a bunch of little kids right before nap time. Trust me, one time when I was on a mission I had to pose as a…” He trailed off when he saw Mole entering the room, carrying a large sack on his shoulder. “Whatcha got there, buddy?”

“I come bearing gifts,” Mole growled around his ever-present cigar. He dumped the sack on the ground. “Believe it or not, boys and girls, this is all mail and it’s actually for all of us.”

“Are you serious?” Alec asked skeptically.

“Yep. Just start calling this place the North Pole and me Santa,” Mole said. “It was dropped off at the gates by those National Guard assholes that have parked themselves outside. Don’t worry, I brought it over to our boys over on the corner and they checked every last bit of it. What’s clean is here and what isn’t they took care of.”

“Well, this is certainly something different,” Dix remarked. “Should we sort all of it first?”

“What the hell,” Mole said. He shrugged, dumped the mail onto a large table in the room that they normally used for planning heists, and started to leave the room. “Have fun, you guys.”

“Not so fast,” Alec said. He gestured for Mole to come back. “You’re going to help us sort this out.”

“I don’t think so, pretty boy,” Mole said.

“Hey, you never know. Some of it might be for you.” Alec grinned. “Be a pal, Mole.”

“Fine,” Mole said. He, Alec, and Dix walked over to the table, pulled up chairs, sat down, and started to get to work. “Should we wait for Max?”

Alec shook his head. “Nah. She’s doing some kind of girly beautification thing in her apartment.” He saw the odd looks that Mole and Dix gave him. “Hey, anything women do beyond taking a shower or washing their hands before they eat becomes some complicated beauty ritual to them. Anyway, the last time that I called Max to come down here for something that wasn’t life-or-death important and she was taking a bubble bath or something like that, she nearly took my head off. Let’s give it at least another fifteen minutes before we clue her in.” Alec cracked his knuckles. “If for whatever reason there’s a letter addressed to somebody specifically, set it aside. Everything else is fair game for the opening.”

“Okay,” Dix said. He picked up a letter. “Cute, it looks like a little kid addressed this one and in crayon no less.” He opened the envelope and withdrew the piece of paper that was inside. “’Dear transgenics, my Mommy said that you are all bad bad monsters and need to go away where you came from. Please go away and never ever come back. Love, Suzy.’” He shook his head. “Real nice of the woman to tell a small child that, isn’t it?”

“At least the woman is also apparently teaching the kid good manners,” Alec said. “She sounded more polite than most Ordinary adults that I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, adults suck sometimes.” The three men at the table looked over to see Dalton.

“Yep, that’s one of those gems that you pick up on during your adolescence,” Alec agreed. “Pull up a seat and give us a hand, kid. We actually got some mail from these Ordinaries and we’re going through all of it.”

“Cool, thanks,” Dalton said gratefully. He sat down next to Alec and grabbed a stack of the letters. “I finished my shift on guard over near the East side and I was getting kind of bored. I’ve got nothing else on my schedule until tomorrow morning.”

Mole snorted. “Well, this should keep you occupied.”

“Don’t mind him,” Alec said. He glanced over the letter that he had just opened. “This one was written by some crazy old guy. It just goes on and on about the good old days way before the Pulse back when this guy was actually a child and all they had to worry about was what to have for dinner on Sunday night. Basically, he’s using us an excuse to rant and rave about how shitty the Pulse was.”

“I don’t care,” Mole said. “They can put the blame on us for whatever the hell they want for all I care because I know that’s exactly what they’re going to do. We’re the scapegoats du jour, boys.”

“Oh my God, he knows a foreign language!” Alec said in mock surprise.

“Surprised, pretty boy?” Mole said, smirking. “Got anything in this pile other than stuff from deluded children and rants from old men?”

“I think I have something,” Dalton said. “It’s from a woman. ‘Hey Transgenic Guys, I am a…’” He trailed off and his eyes widened as he continued to read the letter. “Um, wow. That’s…oh, there’s a picture.” Dalton picked up the picture that had fallen out of the envelope and his jaw hit the floor. “Wow!”

“Better give that one over to the adults, kid,” Mole told him, reaching over and taking the letter and photo from Dalton’s hands.

“Hey!” Dalton protested. “I’m not a kid, I’m fifteen!”

“Don’t sweat it,” Alec said. He patted Dalton on the back reassuringly. “If you want something to do later that’ll keep your skills sharp, you can try to break into his apartment later to get them back.” He and Dalton laughed and ignored the glare that Mole sent their way.

“Hey, check this one out,” Dix informed them, his voice sounding pleasantly surprised. “It’s from somebody who’s actually on our side.”

“Seriously?” Alec asked. Dix nodded and slid Alec the letter. He picked it up and started to read it. “’Dear Transgenics, I’ve been hearing so much about you on the news and in the papers. I just wanted to tell you how much it sickens me to hear about what you’ve gone through in the past and what’s happening to you now. You don’t deserve this treatment. Good luck with whatever you do in the future.’ That’s pretty cool.”

“Sure sounds like it,” Max said from the control room doorway, startling the guys. “Mind if I join you?”

“The more the merrier,” Alec said. “I l—really like a leader who’s not afraid to get her hands dirty.”

“Good to know,” Max said. She pulled over a pile of the letters and picked one up. “Open or no?”

“Open if it’s addressed to you or nobody in particular,” Dix informed her.

“Got it,” Max said. She opened the letter, looked at it, and snorted. “I think this one’s really for you, Alec.”

Alec looked puzzled, but he accepted the piece of paper from Max and began to read it out loud. “’Hey, cat and whatever guys. I think it rocks to have all those cool things. Hey, can you help a guy out? Do you know where a guy can score some money and decent wheels? I’ve got this really hot date on Tuesday with this chick and I totaled my car last week and I don’t have the money to even rent one so I can pick her up. Please help a guy out? I even gave my return address so that you can write back to me. If you don’t, it’s okay. I understand. Thanks!’” Alec looked over at a laughing Max. “You know, this is a guy in need. It sounds as if his date’s important to him.”

“Max, do you understand teenage female?” Dix asked.

“Say what?” Max said.

“This letter,” Dix said, gesturing to the one in question. “Some teenage girl wrote it and I can’t make heads or tails of it. It’s really as if it’s written in a completely foreign language.”

“Oh,” Max said understandingly. “I never went through that particular phase myself, but I know what you’re talking about.” She accepted the letter from Dix. “’Dear Transgenics, I totally heard that you guys are really, really hot! Is it true? Are you really hotter than even the lead singer of that boy band, you know, the new one? Oh, please let it be true! Can you, like, go into public or something so I can see just how cute you are? I so want so swoon and I, like, haven’t actually seen you guys yet! Love, Stacey.’”

“Great, teenyboppers,” Alec muttered. “Hey, Dalton, do you want her address? It’s on the envelope.”

“Is she cute?” Dalton asked.

“Do a lot of praying before you sneak over to her house to find out.”

“Alec, you can play ‘corrupt the X6s later,” Max said, though she sounded more amused than pissed.

“I know that you have a lot do with running this city, but you know what they said,” Alec said. “All work and no play makes for one bitchy…” He laughed when Max threw a bunch of unopened letters at him. “I just love it when I’m proven right.”

“The two of you can cut the foreplay,” Mole remarked.

“You’re such a juvenile,” Max said.

“Mmmm,” Mole said skeptically. “Anyway, princess, here’s something that’s actually addressed to you.”

“What?” Max said as she took the sealed envelope from Mole.

Alec glanced over for a look. “That’s Logan’s handwriting.”

“It is,” Max agreed. She stood up. “I’ll be back in a few, guys.” She walked over in a corner of the room where the men at the table wouldn’t be able to get a view of the letter’s contents and started to read it. Alec watched with interest and then concern as the expression on Max’s face went from happy to puzzled to absolutely angry. Max crumpled the letter, shoved it into one of her jeans pockets, and left the room. Alec immediately got up and followed her up to the roof of the main building.

“Max, is something wrong?” he asked.

“He dumped me,” Max said angrily. “He broke up with me in a fucking Dear John letter!”

Alec’s jaw dropped. “Whoa. That’s pretty low.”

“He didn’t even have the balls to tell this to me to my face!” she fumed. “Hell, it’s not like he even had to come over here to Terminal City to tell me this. We’re talking about Logan here. How have we been communicating with him over the past couple of months? Through the magic of video conference calls via computer. Would it have been too much for him to have vid called and asked to speak to me privately? I don’t think that it would have. I would even have taken a regular old call to my cell phone! But nooooooooo. He had to be a fucking coward and…” Max couldn’t finish her sentence and Alec pulled her into a hug.

“I’m really sorry, Max,” he said quietly. She wasn’t crying, but she was clearly extremely upset. He tightened his hold on her for a few moments before he let her go. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah…eventually,” Max said after she took a few shuddering breaths to keep herself in control. “I’m just frustrated with Logan. The funny part is that’s all I feel about him right now. I don’t get it. I know that we haven’t been physically face-to-face in months but still, I thought that I would be…”

“Asking me to sneak out of T.C. so that I could steal a pharmacy’s entire stock of tissues?” Alec guessed.

“Something along those lines,” Max conceded. “To be honest, I’ve been so busy with everything that I haven’t even thought of Logan much. Maybe I even saw it coming and I didn’t want to admit it.”

“You are the most stubborn woman that I’ve ever met,” Alec said.

“I know,” Max said.

“Are you going to be okay?” Alec repeated.

Max nodded. “I will be. It’s probably going to be awhile before I can think of Logan or anything like that without wanting to put my first through a wall or through him for that matter, but I’ll live.”

“Good,” Alec said. “I’m glad.” He smiled a little. “If you’re still angry, I’d wait for a few before telling the guys downstairs because you know that Mole’s going to say ‘I told you so’ about ten times the millisecond that you get the whole story out of your mouth.”

“Don’t I know it,” Max agreed. “Do you think everybody will be trying to shove that in my face?”

“Nah, we’re mostly professionals and adults,” Alec said. “Don’t worry.”

“Thank you,” Max said.

“No problem,” Alec told her. “Though speaking of Mole, if we don’t get back down to him, Dix, and Dalton to finish helping with those letters soon, he’ll be coming up here to check to see if we’re making out.”

“That’s Mole for you,” Max said with a sigh.