Missing Moments -- Together: Zack, Charlie, and Case

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Zack, Tinga, Charlie Smith, 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.).

Notes:  Spoilers and spoiler-ish stuff for “Hit A Sista Back,” “Meow,” “...And Jesus Brought A Casserole,” and “Designate This.”  Takes place sometime between chapters 15 and 20 of “Together.”

Zack pulled up to his destination, a small house just outside of Edmonton, and just stared at the building for several minutes.  This is going to be so hard, but I have to do it.  She’d want me to do this for her.  He shut off his motorcycle, chained it up to a nearby tree, took off his helmet, and walked up to the front door and knocked politely.  A few moments later, Zack heard a man approach the door and then bend down to look through the peephole to see who it was.  After what seemed like an eternity, the door finally opened to reveal Charlie Smith standing inside the house.

“Hello,” Charlie greeted the X5.  “It’s Zack, right?”

“Yes,” Zack confirmed.  “Can I please come in?”

Charlie stared at Zack for a few moments before he nodded.  “Yes, come on in.”  He stepped aside so Zack could enter the house and then he shut the door.  “Case isn’t here right now, but the bus should be dropping him off from day camp at any moment.  Have a seat.”

“Thank you,” Zack said.  He sat down on the couch, set his helmet down next to him, and looked around the room, almost out of habit.  He felt his heart wrench when he saw the framed picture of Tinga, Charlie, and Case that was up above the fireplace and he took a deep breath.

Charlie sat down in a chair facing Zack.  “What do you want, Zack?”

“I’ve got some news that you need to hear,” Zack told him.

“About Pen—Tinga?” Charlie guessed. His voice had a hopeful sound to it.  “Is she okay?  Is she alive?”

Zack shook his head regretfully.  “I’m sorry.  Tinga died more than three months ago.  I wish that I could have told you about her death sooner, but there was no way for me to do that.  I’m really sorry.”

“I...”  Charlie closed his eyes and cried silently for several minutes.  He finally took a deep breath and wiped his eyes.  “Why weren’t you able to tell me sooner?  Did it take that long for you to find Case and me?”

“No, Max’s friend Logan still had this address,” Zack said.  “After Tinga turned herself in three months ago, I went looking for her.  I ended up finding out that she’d been taken to some kind of covert lab just outside of Seattle.  I got Max and we went to get her and it was just a big mess almost from the start.  I got hit and had to pull out.  Max got to Tinga, but it was too late by then.”  He closed his eyes for a moment and composed himself.  “Max told me later that that they’d had Tinga in some sort of cylindrical tank and there had been tubes hooked up, as if they were trying to extract something from her.  What they wanted to get from her or find out, I’m still not sure exactly what.  Max knew it was too late to save Tinga, but she broke the glass anyway and freed her body and apparently, she was too much in shock and was too upset to her Logan telling her to get out of there before Lydecker’s or Renfro’s men could get to her.  They did and Max was captured.”

“My God,” Charlie breathed.  “Is Max okay?”

“She is now,” Zack assured the other man.  He told Charlie everything, from when they had gathered to get Max away from Lydecker only to have her show up with the man to planning and then taking out the DNA lab to getting captured by the X7s to nearly sacrificing himself for Max.  “…got to the control room and unlocked the doors.  I got the hell out of the building and once I was outside, I met up with Max and Becky and we made it over the perimeter fence and made our way into the city and back to Logan’s apartment.  After I got some new clothes, a new motorcycle, and had my barcode removed again, I called Logan to get this address and then I came right here.  I had to.”

“Thank you,” Charlie said.  “I appreciate it.”  He began to cry quietly.  Zack was unsure of what he should do, so he sat there patiently.  Charlie stopped crying after a few moments and looked back up at Zack.  “Tinga would always tell me about these friends of hers that she’d had in school.  She had this bedtime story that she would tell Case almost every night about a princess and all of her brothers and sisters and how they lived with and escaped an evil king.  I realize in hindsight that she was talking about you and the others.”  His eyes narrowed slightly.  “I don’t know why she looked up to you as much as I know now that she did.”

Zack mentally winced.  He knew what Charlie was referring to.  “I’m sorry.  I was worried about Tinga.  That’s all I was.  I didn’t want her in danger.”  He saw Charlie start to speak, but instinctively cut him off.  “If I really wanted to keep her away from you and Case, then I would have forced her to leave when she told me that she was pregnant or immediately after Case was born.”  He stopped and shook his head.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to snap like that.  It’s…”  He looked up and towards the door.  “You said that Case goes to and from camp on a school bus?”

“Yes,” Charlie said somewhat suspiciously, then he relaxed when he also heard the bus.  “Excuse me for a moment.”  He got up and walked to the front door and opened it.  A few seconds later, Case entered the house and Charlie gave him a big hug.  “Hey, sport.  How was camp?”

“It was a lot of fun,” Case told him.  “I worked on a Popsicle stick log cabin in arts and crafts today and I played t-ball.  I didn’t show off, Daddy, just like you told me to.”  He noticed Zack out of the corner of his eye and turned to face him.  “Hello, Uncle Zack.”

Zack managed a small smile.  “Hello, Case.  It’s good to see you again.”

“Daddy, why is Uncle Zack here?” Case asked.

“Uncle Zack is here because he had some news about Mommy,” Charlie replied.  He led Case over to the couch and sat down and waited until Case had sat next to him before he started to talk again.  “I’m afraid that the news was sad.  Case, Mommy died before she could come back home to us.  I’m so sorry.”

Case’s eyes filled with tears.  “How did Mommy die?”

“It…it was…”  Charlie couldn’t bring himself to tell Case.

Case just looked at his father.  “It was the bad people, wasn’t it?  The ones that were chasing after you and me and Mommy and Aunt Max back home.”

“It was them,” Charlie confirmed.

“Was Mommy scared?” Case wondered.

“No,” Zack assured his nephew.  “Your mother was so brave right until she died.  She knew that the bad people might have gotten to her, but they would never get to you and that in the end, they would lose.”  He managed a smile.  “She was right.”

“They’re gone?” Case asked.

“The people that were after you and your mother are gone,” Zack said.  “Case, I want you to listen to me, okay?  While those particular people can’t hurt you anymore, there are still people out there that are after you, me, your aunts, your other uncles, your new cousin, and other people that are like your mom and me.  You and your father are safe here, but you still need to be careful and not show off too much of what you inherited from your mother, okay?”

Case nodded seriously.  “I promise, Uncle Zack.  Daddy reminds me not to be too fast or show off too much.”

“Thank you,” Zack said.  He reached into his pocket and handed a piece of paper to Charlie.  “The first number is a cell phone number where you can reach me at any time, day or night, no matter where I am.  I gave Tinga a number to reach me when I got back in touch with her again years ago.  I’ve changed it several times since then, obviously.  When she had disappeared that time because Manticore had found her, she called the number that I’d had at the time and Max and I helped her get to safety.  If something happens, I can get here as soon as I can and if I’m not within range, then I can get somebody who is over to help you.  The second number is Max’s new cell phone number. She's still living in Seattle. If you need help and I'm too far out of range, call her.”

“Thank you,” Charlie said.

“Uncle Zack, are you going to stay?” Case asked.

Zack shook his head. “I can’t. I need to go and check up on your Aunt Jace and your new little cousin if he or she has been born yet and then I need to see the rest of your aunts and uncles.  I promise that I’ll come by again, sometime to check in on you.”  He looked at Charlie and Case and saw the pain in their eyes.  “You and your dad need some time to yourselves right now.”

“Okay,” Case said.  He stood up and went over to Zack and gave him a hug.  Zack looked surprised, but he hugged Case back and when the boy had let go, he stood up and walked over to Charlie and shook his head.  “Good bye.”

“Good bye, Zack,” Charlie said.  “Thank you for telling us.”  Zack nodded, picked his helmet up off of the couch, and left the house.  He walked back to his motorcycle and unchained it and got on.  He turned on the engine, but paused and looked back towards the house before he put his helmet on and rode off.