Missing Moments -- Together: Jondy, Max, Zack, and Zane

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, 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 (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

Notes:  This is technically part of the ‘Missing Moments’ series here on this website but unlike the other ones, this is written from first person P.O.V. (Jondy’s).  Even though more people are involved in this part than I listed in the title, I only gave the transgenics that had the biggest roles in it.  Takes place right after chapter 23 of “Together.”

I lay across the couch in Max’s boyfriend’s penthouse.  What a fucking day.  Here’s something I should really keep in mind:  the next time I feel like taking a vacation or just getting away in general for a couple of days, either shoot myself or get Zack to beat the living crap out of me.  I saw Zane looking down at me and I shook my head.  “I wish that I could have just went to sleep like Kevin and Maggie when they got here, but noooooooo.  I just have to have shark DNA and have gotten two hours of sleep just two freaking days ago.  Would you do me a major favor and knock me unconscious?  Please?”

“Not a problem,” Zane said.  He sounded as emotionally exhausted as I was feeling.  “Just name a time and place and don’t forget to bring a heavy inanimate object with you.  Move over a bit?”  I sat up and slid over and Zane sat down next to me.  “Man, I don’t know what…”  He trailed off when he and I both heard three sets of footsteps approaching the front door to the penthouse and a few moments later, somebody knocked on it.  Logan walked over to the door and opened it and there was Max, Zack, and Becky.  Max still definitely looked troubled by what had happened with Suzanne and White earlier.  It was harder to tell with Zack and Becky, but I knew Zack well enough to be able to tell and Becky was much the same way, plus her eyes were a little bit red and puffy.  The poor girl.

“I’m glad that you’re back,” Logan said.  “Where were you?  The Space Needle?”

“Yeah, we were at the Needle,” Max confirmed.  “Is everything still cool here?  The kids still sleeping?”

Zane nodded.  “I just looked in on Kevin and Maggie.  They’re still out cold.”  He stretched and stood up.  “Are you guys okay?”

“Ask me that question later because I don’t have a clear answer for you right now,” Becky said honestly.  She sighed and sat down next to me on my other side.  “I feel like such hell.”

I gave her a supportive pat on the back.  “We understand.”  I took another look at her.  She was looking physically wiped as well as emotionally.  “You look like you need to hit the sack something fierce.  Maybe you should get to wherever you’re crashing and do just that.”

“Jondy’s got the right idea for those of us who can do that,” Zack said.  “We need to find some place for her and Zane to sleep tonight.”

“I have a couch that pulls out in my apartment,” Becky offered.  “I have a second bedroom, but there’s no bed in there.  I use it for storage.  Sorry.”

“I’ve got the couch in my living room,” Max said.  “It doesn’t pull out, but Becky didn’t mind it when she was crashing with me after Manticore became a giant smore in the mother of all campfires.”

“Somebody else should stay here with the kids,” Zack said.  He glanced at Becky, who nodded in agreement.  “Though I don’t know where they would sleep since Kevin has the bed in Logan’s room, Maggie is sleeping in the spare bedroom, and Logan’s using the pull out couch in his living room.”

“I’ve got a couple of sleeping bags in the closet in my room,” Logan volunteered.  “My cousin went camping with his wife a couple of weeks ago and after he realized that they had too many, they stopped here on their way and dumped them with me and they haven’t picked them up yet.”

“As long as I’ve got at least a sleeping bag, I’m happy,” Zane said.  “I’ll camp out here tonight with Kevin, Maggie, and Logan.  Just point me in the direction of those sleeping bags.”

“Good.” Zack re-focused his attention to Becky.  “Becky, can I take your couch for the night?”  When she nodded, he turned to Max and me.  “Jondy, I’m going on the assumption that you’re going to be staying with Max tonight, so it looks like we’re all set for the time being.  Let’s all meet back here at nine tomorrow morning and we’ll take things from that point.”  He waited patiently for Becky to gather what was left of the things that she had brought over before bailing us out and then they left.

“Well, I guess you and I should blaze,” Max said.  She went over to Zane and gave him a hug.  “I’ll see you in the morning, Zane.  I love you.”

“I love you too, Maxie,” Zane said.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, Logan.” Max kissed her boyfriend on the cheek before heading out with me right behind her.  We got in the elevator and took it down to the parking garage and went over to where she’d parked her motorcycle.  She unchained it and I hopped on behind her and we took off.  A few minutes later, we arrived at her place and got off of the bike.  “Here we are.  What do you think?”

“I’ve lived in much worse places,” I said, looking up at the building.  “Where’s your little corner?”

“Up a couple of floors,” Max informed me.  She began to walk her Ninja towards the building.  “Come on.  Let’s go up.”  I nodded and we went inside and up to her floor.  We walked down the hall and Max opened a door and we walked inside an apartment.  “Hey, O.C., I’m back.”

“I was getting worried,” a woman’s voice greeted us.  A few moments later, a girl our age walked into the living room and looked at me for a couple of seconds before turning her attention to Maxie.  “Who’s she?”

“Original Cindy, this is my sister Jondy.  I told you about her,” Max said.  “Jondy, this is Original Cindy.  She’s my roommate and don’t worry, she’s cool about everything.”

I got the hint, nodded, and reached out to shake Original Cindy’s hand.  “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Pleasure to meet you, too,” Original Cindy said.  “What happened, boo?”

“Nothing good,” Max told her.  “Jondy, our brother Zane, plus Becky’s sibs Kevin, Suzanne, and Maggie got snagged by that jerk White that’s chasing all of us now.  Zack, Becky, and I went to grab them out and White shot Suzanne when we were trying to get away.  She didn’t make it.”

“Damn, I’m sorry,” Original Cindy said.  “You holding up okay?”

“Well enough for the moment, I guess,” Max said.  She hesitated before smiling a little.  “I’ll be cool eventually.”

Original Cindy looked sympathetic.  “If you need anything, you let me know.”  She gave Max a hug.  It must be nice to have regular friends like that who not only were there for you but didn’t give a damn whether you were transgenic or not.  I hope I’ll be that lucky one of these days.  “Are going to bed or are you going to be staying up for awhile?”

“I’m not going to be sleeping tonight and as far as I know, neither will Jondy,” Max said.  “What about it, Jondy?  Is this one of your sleep nights or are you going to be good for awhile on that front?”

“Good as gold there,” I confirmed.

“Don’t worry about Normal tomorrow.  I’ll cover your back with him,” Original Cindy said.  “What do you want me to tell him?  Do you have something in particular in mind or should I make one up off the top of my head?”

Max shrugged.  “He already knows that I had a heart transplant when I was AWOL so tell him that I had a checkup with my cardiologist that got rescheduled at the last minute.  Just let me know if he wants to see a doc’s note as proof so that I can break into one’s place to grab the stuff to forge one of those things.”

“Cool,” Original Cindy said.  “I’ll hopefully see the two of you in the morning.  It was great meeting you, Jondy.”

“Great meeting you, too,” I agreed.

“So, what do you want to do?” Max asked quietly after Original Cindy had gone into her bedroom.

“I don’t know,” I said.  I started to shake and I shook my head when I saw the concerned look on Maxie’s face.  “No, it’s not a seizure.  It’s just…everything.”

Max nodded sympathetically.  “Come on.  I know just the place where we can go.”

I watched her walk over to her motorcycle and followed her as she wheeled it back outside.  She turned on the engine and I jumped on behind her and we took off again.  I didn’t recognize the streets, but then again, it wasn’t as if I had actually been in the city before.  I did recognize our destination immediately once we had reached it and I couldn’t help staring up at it in awe.  The Space Needle.  Talk about great High Places.  We got off of the bike and after Max had chained it securely to a nearby post, we jumped over a security fence and made our way up the Needle until we were standing on its top.  I sat down and took a good look.  It was something else, all right.

“This is amazing,” I breathed.

“Yeah, it really is,” Max said.  “I come up here all of the time.  Becky comes up here once in awhile since she’s been in Seattle.  It’s where Zack and I found her a little while ago.”

“So are you sick of being here today?” I joked.

“I don’t know…” Max said, pretending to think about it.  We both laughed for a moment before I became quiet again.  Here I was, finally with the sister that I didn’t know for years if she’d lived or died when I saw her go through the ice in Wyoming when we’d escaped.  It had driven me almost nuts at times until Zack had finally caught up with me when I was living in Santa Monica when I was twelve.  I had begged him to tell me if he knew if she was alive, dead, or re-captured and he told me that she was alive and outside, but he didn’t tell me exactly where.  I was a little pissed at the time, but I knew that he was just doing his thing to keep us safe.  I hadn’t actually seen Max since the night of the escape, though, and when I finally do…I couldn’t help shivering again.  Poor Suzanne.

“Jondy?”

“I’d ask you if you ever had a moment in your life when you’d thought that just when something might be peeking over that horizon, something else happens that sends it all straight down the old commode, but I’ve got a good feeling that you’ve had at least one or two days like that,” I said softly.

“True that,” Max agreed.  She put a hand on my shoulder.  Maxie always had a way of knowing what was on my mind.  “Jondy, what happened?  How did you and Zane get into that mess with Becky’s sibs?”

I took a deep breath.  “After you, Zack, Becky, and all of those guys busted loose from Manticore when it burned down, Zack relocated me from Denver to Houston.  I was living there until a couple of days ago.  I found another job as a bartender and things were okay.  Last week, though, I was having a bit of a bad time.  I know that as far as things go and compared to the crap that we’ve gone through it was nothing, but it still annoyed me a little bit and I decided that I should get away for a few days at least.  I told my boss that I was taking some time off and I tossed a few things in a bag and hitched a ride with somebody.  The trucker that I got a ride with happened to be going to Spokane, so that’s where I ended up.  I got off at the end of the line and went into a diner that was nearby to get something to eat.  I take a look around after the waitress gets my order and this guy walks into the place.  And our mystery person would be…”  I gestured towards Max.

“I’ll take Zane for two hundred?” Max remarked dryly.

“Folks, we have a winner,” I said.  “Yeah, it was Zane.  It took me a few seconds to recognize him and I waved him over to my table and then he recognized me and blah, blah, blah.  We talk while we’re eating and I told him why I was in Spokane and he gave me the 411 on why he was in the area as well.  He said that he was living in Utah but that he got a tip on something that he wanted to steal that had been at a museum in Salt Lake City but was being moved to one in Spokane so he wanted to follow it to see if he could still make a grab on it.  We start to catch up on our lives and finish our breakfast and then we go out and walk around and we’re by some warehouse district when we hear the sounds of a fight.  We go over to check it out and we see Kevin, Maggie, and Suzanne being ambushed by White’s guys.  Zane and I immediately go over to try to help them but it obviously didn’t work.  The next thing that I was definitely aware of was being in the warehouse in Seattle sitting in that freaky chair thing.  I was scared out of my mind.  I didn’t know what the hell was going on and why the guy was holding us until we overheard him mention that this was a trap to grab you.”

“Sorry about that,” Max apologized.  “White thinks that there’s something in my DNA that’s apparently more worth knowing about than what’s in the average X5.”

“It’s not your fault,” I assured her.  “Just remember to give the scientist who designed you a good smack upside the head when you finally find him or her.”

Max laughed.  “That’s on my to-do list for sure.”

“I know that it would be on mine,” I agreed.  I looked down for a few seconds.  “It was really strange at first to see those kids, know what I mean?  I hadn’t seen them or any transgenics other than Zack since we escaped.  It wasn’t as much of a shock to see Zane I guess because I have seen Zack recently and I knew that the age difference between him and Zane is less than a year, but those X6s were so young when we bailed out from Manticore and I couldn’t believe that they were mostly grown up now.”  The tears came back to my eyes, so I closed them.  God, the only thing that I could see was Suzanne going down.  The surprised look on her face, Becky yelling out for her, it kept playing itself in my mind over and over again.  I couldn’t get it to leave my head and I began to cry out loud.  “Why did this have to happen, Max?”

“Wish I knew,” Max said, sounding choked up herself.  She hugged me and I hugged her right back.  “I want to know so badly, Jondy.  I’ll be grateful to the first person who can give me an answer to that question.”

“That poor girl’s face,” I sobbed.  “Did you see it, Maxie?  Did you see how shocked it was when the bullet hit?  She looked so betrayed, like somebody had stolen something from her.  That bastard stole her life.  He fucking robbed her of her life.”

“She never saw it coming,” Max managed to say.  She was also crying.  “He was hiding like a coward when he shot her.  Not like…”  Max couldn’t finish the thought and we both started to cry harder.  It was unbelievable how something could hurt this badly after so many years.

“…like with Eva,” I managed to finish the sentence several minutes later.  “She didn’t deserve to die that night.  Suzanne didn’t deserve to die tonight.  Both of them should still be alive.”  I took a deep breath and let go of Max.  “Did you…did you see Eva’s face after Lydecker shot her?”

“I did,” Max said quietly.  “Calm and defiant, right to the end.  Deck shooting Eva didn’t take her by surprise, that was for sure.”  She snorted.  “Good old Colonel Lydecker.  He’ll kill you, but he’s nice enough to kill you to your face.”

“What do you think would be going through the guy’s mind if he knew what had happened tonight?” I wondered.  “Would he be happy, would he be sad about this, or would he just not give a rat’s ass?”

Max shrugged.  “I don’t have a clue.  I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t be happy about it.  At worst, he’d be criticizing what went wrong on both sides because we both know just how bad of a perfectionist the bastard is.”  She and I rolled our eyes.  “He’d be sad in his own way, but probably just because he’d be thinking of Suzanne as a soldier and nothing more than that.  He wouldn’t know about and if he did, care about what Becky told me Suzanne had been like.”

“What was she like?” I asked.  I was curious.

“Becky told me that Suzanne liked riling the guys up and that Kevin was her favorite target,” Max said.  “I think she also told me once that Suzanne had a bubbly personality but fortunately wasn’t annoying.  She was generally a really sweet kid.”

“I think I would have liked getting to know her,” I decided.  “I wish I could have gotten the chance.”  I bit my lip and tried not to start crying again.  “Can you imagine how hard it’s going to be for the kids to deal with this?  Kevin and Maggie were crushed.”

“Becky’s having a rough time herself,” Max admitted.  “She pulled it together for Kevin and Maggie, but you should have seen her when Zack and I found her up here.  She broke down.  And in Becky’s case, it wasn’t just Suzanne’s death that was dragging on her.  She’s lost several siblings back at Manticore.  One brother died when both he and Becky were babies, another one died a few months before we left when he drowned in the tank and the trainers wouldn’t free him after Becky spotted that he was in trouble, another brother died while on a training mission, and her youngest sister was killed about six years ago when some trainers decided to play a round of ‘Pin the Blame On the Transgenic’ after another trainer had been accidentally shot and killed during another training exercise that Becky’s unit had been participating in.  That’s in addition to the usual Manticore dealio and anything else the girl hasn’t told either Zack or me yet.”  She shrugged.  “I don’t think it’s quite the whole story, myself.  There’s got to be one or two things that Becky hasn’t given us the 411 on yet.  No blame there.  It’s sure as hell hard for me to blab about my Manticore issues, even to you.”

“Likewise,” I agreed.  “No matter how much time goes by, it’s almost literally painful to talk about what happened back there.  It’s been years for me and even in your case, you had a good ten or eleven years or so before you got thrown back in hell.  Becky had seventeen straight years of that crap.  How willing would anybody be to talk after enduring it for that long at a stretch?”

Max nodded and we were quiet for several moments.  “I think Zack might be softening the tiniest bit.  Either that or he’s actually using me as a second-in-command like back in the day.  He told me when we were heading back to Logan’s after we found and talked to Becky that he’s going to fill me in on everybody’s location before he bails from Seattle again just in case.  He still doesn’t want me to go over to just visit everybody, though.”  She rolled her eyes but she actually didn’t look all that annoyed.  “He said that things are tense enough with that asshole hunting us down and he doesn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.  If I didn’t see for myself that White wants to skip past the capture part straight to kill, I’d be pissed as hell.”

“Do you know what I’d absolutely pay money to see?” I said.  “Throw Lydecker and White in a cage together, lock the thing, and watch them fight to the death.  That would be a good fight, actually, if Deck’s stayed in fighting shape.”

“When I saw him the night of the DNA lab raid, he didn’t exactly look like middle age had kicked him in the ass,” Max said.  “I think it would be a good fight.”  She stretched and suddenly laughed.  “Zack had told me when Manticore was trying to track him to find you guys that you were living in San Francisco.  I used to live there.  In fact, that was where I’d been living right before I came here to Seattle.  I was there from June of 2015 to April of 2018.  When did you get into town?  I don’t remember ever seeing you there.”

“Damn!” I said.  “I didn’t move to San Francisco until May of that year.  One stupid month and we could have met up again.”

“Yeah,” Max agreed.  “How weird was that?” 

I shook my head  “Very weird.  Speaking of which, how much do you want to bet that Zack is gonna want to relocate me and Zane even though this happened nowhere near where either of us are living?”

“No doubts here on that one,” Max agreed.  She stretched her arms.  “Do you want to go find yourself another bike while you’re here or do you want to see if Zack can recover your old one?  I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you don’t have it with you here in Seattle.”

I shrugged.  “I don’t know if I’m going to get a new bike or not.  I left my motorcycle back in Houston when I decided to get away for a bit. Whether or not I end up with that one or something new depends on if Zack’s going to be willing to go back to Houston with or without me to get my things.  I’m definitely going to miss it if he says it’s a no-go on grabbing my bike.  You would have absolutely loved this motorcycle, Maxie.  It was the cutest thing.  Okay, I thought it was cute but cute to me would blow away a normal person.  It was this perfect black Kawasaki ZZR600.  It was powerful but not too powerful because nothing tips cops off faster, no pun intended, than pulling hairpin turns with no sweat going 200, know what I mean?  It was an absolute gem.  I got a hell of a deal on it, too.  I’d gone into this crappy-looking repair shop right near my apartment, I was familiarizing myself with the neighborhood, and I was chatting with the owner when I see the bike in the corner.  I asked about it and he said that it was brought almost two months before.  Apparently, somebody had wrecked it a little and ditched the bike and since the owner was nowhere in sight, the cops brought it over there.  It had already been fixed and the shop owner was contemplating—“

“Hold on a second,” Max interrupted.  “Did it have a touch of dark blue paint on the seat, like there had once been more there but it had been mostly cleaned off?”

“Yeah, why?” I asked and then, like an idiot, figured it out after having asked the stupid question.  “That was your bike?  You’re telling me that I actually ended up with your old motorcycle?”  I laughed.  This was unbelievable.  “Well, let me tell you, once I got that bike and worked that engine like a fiddle again, it was a total dream.  You would have been proud, though it looks like you traded up a bit with what you’ve got.”

Max nodded.  “Yeah, this one’s got a little more kick than, well, our old bike.  I love it.  I’ve really fine-tuned the engine.  I think I did a good enough job to make Zane proud.”

“Cool,” I said.  Max and I grew silent and I could feel my mood sliding downwards once more as guilt started to creep in.  We were catching up, laughing…but it didn’t erase what had happened earlier.  It was definitely going to take awhile before Suzanne’s death would stop feeling this painful, and I didn’t know Suzanne beyond the few words that we’d exchanged in the warehouse before Max and everybody had shown up, me and Zane jumping in to try to help them fight off White’s guys in Spokane, and even the little interaction that our units had between each other way back at Manticore when we were kids.  Dealing with death was not easy, and it never would be.

When Max and I got back to Logan’s penthouse at five minutes to nine the following morning, I wasn’t surprised that Zack and Becky had beaten us there.  When has Zack ever not been early or at least on time for something?  What I couldn’t believe, however, was the incredible smell coming from the kitchen.  Somebody sure knew how to cook.

“What’s cooking, Logan?” Max asked.  “Smells like blueberries.”

“Blueberry pancakes,” Logan confirmed.  “I’ve been at it for awhile.  I’m pretty sure I’ve got enough for everybody.  I should be finished making them any minute now, so have a seat.”

“Will do,” Max said.  We plopped down on the re-folded couch and took a look around the room.  Zack and Becky were quiet, no surprise there at least on Zack’s part, Maggie still looked pretty devastated, and Kevin looked down as well, but he was chatting with Zane.  “So, how is everybody?”

“About the same,” Becky said.  “I slept like a rock.  My head hit the pillow and…”  She trailed off and snapped her fingers.

Kevin shrugged.  “I can’t believe I slept for nine hours.  I don’t think I’ve gotten that much rest at a stretch since I was a baby and they let us get that much sleep in a night.”  We were all quiet for another few moments until I decided to open my mouth.

“So, what happens now?” I asked.  “Where do we go from here?”

“I want to move you and Zane out of the state soon and get you to an entirely new location, just as a precaution,” Zack said.  I exchanged a quick look with Max. Yep, we called it.  “I want to get moving on that by this afternoon at the latest.”  He turned his head so that he was looking at Becky.  “As for Kevin and Maggie, Becky, it’s your call.”

Becky sighed.  “I would have to agree with Zack in that I think that the two of you should head out of Washington.  I’d wait until at least tomorrow to get the two of you going, though.”

“Do…do I really have to leave Seattle?” Maggie asked.  She looked even more devastated than either Becky or Kevin.  I guess Suzanne must have been her best friend growing up and I bit my lip.  If, God forbid, if it had been either Max or Rena…I really felt for her.  “Never mind.  You’re right, Becky, it is a good idea and all.  Just let me know where and when you want to send me.”

“Maybe not just yet,” Becky said, taking a good, long look at her younger sister.  “If you really want to stay nearby, I guess it will be fine.  Just don’t stay in the city itself, okay?”

“I won’t,” Maggie said gratefully.  “Thanks, Becky.”

“What’s it like being by yourselves out here in the real world?” Kevin asked, a thoughtful look on his face.  “I’ve been out on assignments plenty of times, but I never got the chance to go out on a solo mission before Manticore.  I’d only just passed my test for solos when the place burned to the ground.”

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world,” Max said.  “We were all younger by minimum a few years when we headed for the outside.  At least you guys are at or close to the age when you’d be itching to get out here anyway.  It’s tough to be by yourself.  You’ll probably feel very isolated and it will be depressing at times.  But it’s all good.  You’ll have your freedom, more so than what we had back at Manticore at any rate.”

“What about friends?” Maggie wondered.  “Is it safe for us to have friends outside of other transgenics?”

Zack nodded.  “It’s safe as long as you are about it.  Max is lucky in that she has one friend who not only knows about her being a transgenic, but accepted it without too much trouble and is willing to defend her to the end.  That kind of thing is extremely rare, though, but it’s your decision if you want to take that kind of chance.”  My jaw dropped wide open, with Max’s and Zane’s a beat behind.  This is Zack who just gave that advice, right?  Mr. Take-No-Chances-Whatsoever-For-The-Sake-Of-OpSec?

“You are Zack, right?” Zane said.  “I mean, you are the same guy who’s ass I’ve wanted to kick more times than I can count because you’ve bitched to me non-stop at times for taking too many chances with trusting people even though I’ve never taken that kind of chance before and I won’t any time in the near future?”

“Maybe I should move you out sooner, Kevin,” Becky muttered.  “Having you and Zane in the same place is a bad idea.”

“I wish that I could just work as a doctor or even a nurse,” Maggie said, pouting a little.  “I’m so good with medicine and treating injuries and everything.  I finished my med training already.”

“Yeah, Doogie Howsers don’t exist in real life,” Zane said sympathetically.

“Huh?  What’s a Doogie Howser?”  Maggie asked.

“Doogie Howser was the main character in this Pre-Pulse TV show about this twelve-year-old boy genius who was a doctor,” Zane said.  “I used to have a roommate who had DVDs of the show.  Not bad, but not the best show I’ve ever watched in my life.  The worst thing was that he used to drink these huge cups of soda when he would watch those things and somehow – and this was a complete mystery to me – manage to spill at least a quarter of his drink on my bike, which I had to keep inside our apartment for awhile because these idiot gang members tried to steal it and when they realized how good the lock I’d made myself was, they settled for vandalizing it.  The mystery was how he would get it on the motorcycle from across the room.”

“You have a motorcycle?” Kevin asked eagerly.  “Can I get one, too?”

“I guess it’s official:  motorcycles are a transgenic thing,” Max remarked.  “You’ve been out in the world for about a month and you haven’t gotten your own bike yet?”

“Well, I had a motorcycle,” Zane said.  “I’m going to have to get a new one.  Exactly when I get it depends on whether or not Big Brother here minds lugging my sorry butt on his while he relocates me.”  That got giggles from me, Max, and Maggie.

“Max has got a great one,” Becky said.  “It’s not the most absolute powerful one that’s out there, but I can almost guarantee that there are few that handle as well as hers does.”

Zack looked mildly surprised.  “You let Becky ride your bike?  Didn’t you tell me once that you wouldn’t let anybody else ride it under any circumstance?”

“True, but most people don’t have the proper coordination and reflexes to handle my baby,” Max pointed out.  “Plus, I trust Becky.  She was re-doing the engine on her bike and she wasn’t finished and she needed to go out to do recon on a bank job that she ended up pulling out-of-town.”

“I really want to get a supersport.  I want to get one that has huge power,” Kevin said eagerly.  He sighed.  “I really want to get away.”

“So did I.  That’s how I ended up in yesterday’s mess,” I said dryly.

“What you need is to go to a place where there is plenty to occupy you,” Zane told him.  “I’m talking somewhere that’s non-stop activity.  Plenty of places for you to grab cash when needed wouldn’t hurt, either.”  He snapped his fingers.  “I’ve got it!  Vegas.”

“Cool!” Kevin exclaimed eagerly.  Max and I were rolling on the floor laughing from the Death Look that Becky was giving Zane.  Oh brother, if that didn’t look like one of Zack’s famous Looks, then I didn’t know what did.  Kevin also saw the expression on Becky’s face and rolled his eyes.  “Come on, it’s a great potential source of money and I’m transgenic.  I’ll be fine.”

Maggie’s own giggle-fit suddenly stopped and her gray-green eyes filled with tears once more.  “Should we be laughing like this?  I mean, is okay to laugh again or is it way too soon?”

“It’s okay,” Zane assured her.  “It’s not a crime to be laughing again after a brother or a sister dies.  It might have been one thing back at Manticore where we weren’t allowed to laugh in the first place, but we’re all free from there.  The timing might seem weird, and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t grieve for Suzanne because God knows you should, but…”  He couldn’t quite find the right words.  Fortunately, Max bailed him out on that one.

“Remember the dead,” she said.  “But don’t forget to live.”

“Suzanne died for her freedom,” Zack said gently.  “She wasn’t the first, and as much as I think that we all want it to be otherwise, she won’t be the last transgenic to do so.  Don’t act as if her death never happened, but remember who she was and what she liked, and enjoy life for her.  There will be times when her murder will sock you in the face faster than somebody’s fist in a training session, but try not to let it hold you back.”

Kevin, Maggie, and Becky as well nodded.  We were all quiet for a minute before I caught a wicked light in both Kevin’s and Zane’s eyes.  Kevin, however, opened his mouth first.  “Becky, isn’t this where you’re supposed to say ‘But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be careful out here?’”

“Oh, man!” Zane said, laughing.  He reached over and gave Kevin a high five.  “I really like you, kid.”

Zack sighed in resignation.  “At least Krit and Wayne aren’t here right now.”

“Thanks, man,” Kevin said.  He looked contemplative.  “That’s weird.  If somebody had asked me a couple of months ago if I would have even cared if one or more of you guys liked me, I would have told them they were nuts.  Things are so upside-down and blended together, it’s insane.  Not that it’s a bad thing that I’m glad that you think highly of me, you know what I mean?”

“Like I told you yesterday in the warehouse, you were really young when me and my sibs escaped,” I reminded him.  “Not that Max and I were that much older than you at the time.  Kids, especially when they’re that particular age, have a lot of blind trust in adults.  Sometimes it’s justified and other times it isn’t.  If you’re lucky, you’ll eventually figure out if it’s right or not.”

“Now you can really figure things out on your own terms,” Max said.  “It ain’t always easy, but it’s cool.”

“Breakfast is finally ready,” Logan yelled from the kitchen.

Max sighed.  “You’d think in the time that we’ve known each other that he would remember that we can hear him just fine from here when his voice is at regular volume.”  That actually got a giggle from Becky and a smirk from Zack, which both of them quickly hid.  We all got up and started to head towards the kitchen.  We let the three X6s go in ahead of us and watched them for a few moments.

“They are great kids,” Zane said.  “What they haven’t got figured out yet, they’ll get it pretty soon.”

“Suzanne’s death is going to hurt them for awhile,” Zack said.

“True that,” Max said.  “But I think they’ll pull through eventually.”

I nodded in agreement as I followed Max, Zack, and Zane into Logan’s kitchen.  Those kids really were tough where it counted and I didn’t have a doubt that eventually, they would pull through this crisis.  The real world is, and always will be, a hard place.  But it’s not an impossible deal to navigate through for most people.  And if that fucker White gets what’s coming to him one of these days, it’ll make this world a heck of a lot easier to live in.  At least for me.

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