Prophecy -- Chapter 6

Disclaimer:  The TV shows Dark Angel and Supernatural, all of the characters that appeared on them, and everything else that has to do with the shows belong to their respective owners, not to me.  No money is being made off of this fic.  I only own the original characters (Dylan/X6-175, etc.).

Notes:  I made a minor edit to chapter 5.

Alec wandered into one of the rooms on the second floor of the main building.  He walked over to the table that Dylan was sitting at and glanced over the younger man’s shoulder.  “Hey.  What are you doing?”

Dylan gave Alec a slightly annoyed look.  “I’m checking over these plans that the group came up with for the museum job next week to see if there are any cracks in them.  You asked me to do this, remember?”

“I know, chill out.”  Alec sighed.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.  I’ve just had a rough morning,” Dylan assured him.  He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  “For somebody who hates the ‘09ers as much as he claims that he does, Wade sure does like to hang around Max a lot.  Then again, maybe he wants to stay near the action.”

“I think it’s more that Wade’s a suck-up at heart,” Alec said.  “He’s painfully aware that Max is the top dog around here.  Put two and two together and…”  He grinned.  “You know, Wade was from the Wyoming facility originally so Max actually remembers him from before she and her crew decided to cut loose from Manticore way back when.  She told me that he was as much the redheaded stepchild then as he is now.”

Dylan snickered.  “He was really happy when you actually called him that the other day.”

“Hey, if he wants to do something about it, he can always dye his hair.  I can’t do anything about the fact that it looks like somebody shredded a ton of carrots and glued them to his head,” Alec said, grinning.  He and Dylan both laughed.  “What amazes me, though, is how selective his ‘09er grudge is.  I mean, yesterday, Wade comes into the control room.  I happen to be talking with Max and Audrey and Wade starts to flirt with Audrey, knowing full well that she’s Max’s sister.  Not that I can entirely blame him, Audrey’s a babe, but that is kind of…”  Alec trailed off when he noticed the sudden tension in Dylan’s posture.  “Something wrong, Dylan?”

“Nothing,” Dylan lied.

“Bullshit,” Alec countered.  He scrutinized Dylan for a few moments before a smile slowly appeared on his face.  “It’s not a bad thing for you to admit that you’ve got it for Audrey, you know.”

“Maybe…”

“Maybe what?”

“Okay, I like her!”  Dylan snapped.  “Gee, and you call me persistent.”

“You are,” Alec pointed out.  “But that’s not the topic at hand.  I think it’s cool that you’re into somebody.  The fact that it’s somebody that Mr. Moron is lusting after and she has less than no interest in reciprocating said lust is icing on the cake, at least in my opinion.”

“That doesn’t exactly hurt,” Dylan conceded.  “But it’s not why I like Audrey.  She’s beautiful, she’s…that smile.  Those eyes.  Wow, Alec.  They blew my mind when I first saw her talking with you and Max.  And on top of that, she’s so funny and smart.  She makes my ex-girlfriend Katie seem like nothing, you know what I mean?  Audrey is amazing.”

Alec raised an eyebrow.  “You sound as if you’re two seconds from breaking out the flowers and champagne.  Well, you would if you could legally drink.  Actually, can Audrey legally drink?  Either way, it makes the champagne a moot point.”

“Very funny,” Dylan said.  “She’s twenty-one.”

“Hmmm, liking an older woman.  You want her to make you a man, don’t you?  Little Dylan is growing up,” Alec teased.

“Dating an older woman doesn’t necessarily make you a man,” Dylan pointed out.  He smirked.  “You were repeatedly hooking up with that twenty-five-year-old chick on that one mission and you still don’t seem to be any more of a man than you were before that assignment.”

“I beg to differ,” Alec said.

“Bullshit,” Dylan remarked.

“Tell yourself whatever you want to, kiddo,” Alec told him.  “We all know who’s right about this.”

“Whatever,” Dylan said.  He looked up at Alec innocently.  “Speaking of women, though, what about Max?  When are you guys going to hook up?”  The look on Alec’s face had Dylan laughing hysterically.  “Come on, man.  You have to admit I’ve got this one.”  Dylan sighed.  “I know she only broke up with that guy about a week ago and I’m not saying that you should dive right in.  But you do like her at least as much as I’m into Audrey, right?”

Alec looked his friend right in the eye.  “You won’t make fun of me if I admit that I’ve been head-over-heels for her since she almost literally made me that way the first time that I met her?”

“I’d never do that,” Dylan said honestly.

“Thanks, buddy,” Alec said.  He shook his head.  “I’m happy that Max thinks of me as one of her best friends.  That’s light years from where we started out.  Do you want this list of reasons Max couldn’t stand me?  We’ve got Manticore-assigned breeding partner, complete screw up, and my personal favorite:  twin or clone of her dead brother.  Did Max tell you the story about the circumstances about Ben’s death?”

Dylan nodded.  “Yeah, she did.  But complete screw up?  I don’t get that.  You were never a complete screw up.”

“Maybe not a complete one,” Alec conceded.  “I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not perfect.”  He and Dylan laughed.  “Though I didn’t do a whole lot right after the fire.  Between...Rachel, Ben, the time in Psy Ops, Max, and then the fire on top of all of that, I went through the mental wringer.  And yeah, there was the normal Manticore crap here and there before the place went down in flames.”

“You got it back together, though,” Dylan guessed.

“Absolutely,” Alec confirmed.  “Max helped.  Even though it seemed like she was being a huge bitch at the time, and she probably was, she really helped me get my head together.  I’m grateful to her for it.  Tell her that, though, and I’ll have to kill you.”  The two of them laughed once more.

“I really should be getting back to these plans,” Dylan said reluctantly.  “I’m only halfway through going over them.  They seem pretty good so far.  I haven’t found anything that needs to be revised.”

“Good.”  Alec gave Dylan a friendly slap on the shoulder.  “Keep at it.  Meet you in the cafeteria for dinner at about six-thirty?  It’ll be a group of us.  Me, Max, Joshua…”  He grinned wickedly.  “…and Audrey.”  He laughed and ducked out of the way when Dylan threw a pencil at him.  “Is that a yes or a no?”

“I’ll be there just shut up, please,” Dylan muttered, but he smiled.

Alec grinned.  “See you later, Dylan.”

TBC