Prophecy -- Chapter 8

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.).

Dylan sighed as he got out of bed the following morning.  Well, that was one hell of a night.  That nightmare was so…real.  God, I thought that I was seeing Audrey, Max, and all of those other people die.  Thank goodness that it was just a nightmare.  He tried to brush off the nagging feeling of doubt that hit him at that thought.  Of course that’s all it was.  You did almost get killed yourself last week, remember?  That stress was bound to hit you sooner or later.  It’s never manifested itself quite like this before, but hey!  There’s a first time for everything, right?  He shook his head when that same annoying feeling remained.  Right.

He was still lost in his thoughts as he took out some clothes to change into and took off the old t-shirt that he had worn to bed.  I better snap out of it.  I’ve got one heck of a long day ahead of me.  I have a shift in the control room after breakfast, the one on sentry duty in the afternoon that might get switched, and finally weapons maintenance at night.  Well, at least I’ll be doing something.  It’ll take my mind off of that nightmare.  Dylan yawned.  I just wish that I’d gotten more sleep afterwards.  I feel like my brain is moving along at two miles an hour.  He perked up a little when he heard a knock at his door.

“Who is it?” Dylan asked.

“It’s me, Audrey,” Audrey said.  “Can I come in?”

“Sure, I’ll be right there,” Dylan told her.  Fighting off another yawn, he walked from his bedroom into the living room and opened the front door, smiling when he saw Audrey standing in the hallway.  “Hey, Audrey.  I didn’t think I’d see you until later.”

“Um, yeah,” Audrey agreed nervously.

Dylan looked puzzled.  “Are you okay?”

“Perfect,” Audrey muttered.

Why is she staring at me like that? Dylan wondered to himself.  There’s nothing wrong, is there?  And why is she blushing…?  He looked down and realized that the only piece of clothing that he was wearing was the boxer shorts that he’d worn to bed.  Dylan shook his head and blushed redder than Audrey was.  “Oh, man.  I am so sorry.  My mind is not working right this morning.  Can you wait a minute while I finish getting dressed?  Come on in.  I’ll be back in a sec.”

“Sure,” Audrey said.

“Thanks,” Dylan said gratefully.  He stepped aside so that Audrey could enter the apartment before he walked back into his bedroom and quickly changed into his clothes.  Dylan took a deep breath before he headed back into the living room.  “I’m really sorry about that.  I’m a little distracted this morning.”

“Not a problem,” Audrey assured him.  “Seriously.  It could have been much worse.  You could have been completely naked and I could have been in heat.  Or both at the same time.”

“True,” Dylan conceded.  “Do you want some coffee?  I know I need some.”

“That would be great.”  Audrey smiled.  “Thanks, Dylan.”

“Anytime,” Dylan said.  He quickly made his way over to the kitchen to make the coffee.  When it was done a few minutes later, he found two unbroken mugs and poured the coffee into them.  He turned his head in Audrey’s direction.  “Do you want anything in it?”

“Cream and sugar if you have it,” she replied.

Dylan opened his refrigerator and winced.  “Damn.  I’m out of cream.  Is just sugar okay?”

“It’ll be fine,” Audrey said.

“Great.”  Dylan added sugar to both mugs, picked them up, and walked back into the living room, where he handed one of them to Audrey.  “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” Audrey said.  She took a sip.  “That’s not bad.”  Audrey set the mug down on the coffee table and turned to face Dylan.  “You look kind of pale.  Are you okay?  Really?”

“I am,” Dylan insisted.  “I just had a rough night last night.”  He sighed.  “I had one doozy of a nightmare.  After that, I couldn’t get back to sleep.  I’m not sure exactly how much sleep I actually got, but it sure wasn’t enough.  Maybe I’ll catch a quick nap later today if I have the chance.”

Audrey nodded.  “Nightmares can be a real bitch, especially to somebody like you or me.  Name one transgenic from Manticore that has never had any nightmares from what we went through or at least hasn’t had any in the past few years.  I still have them every once in awhile, and it’s been so long since me, Max, and the rest of our family ran from that God-forsaken place.  It’s not something that you can turn off with a switch.”

What I had last night had nothing to do with the kind of nightmares that you’re talking about.  Believe me, I’ve had those, but this was different.  It was still a nightmare, there’s nothing else that it could have been, but it sure wasn’t a typical Manticore alum subconscious-created fright fest.  “That’s true.  I’ve also been through a lot recently.  I mean, I almost died last week.  Did Max tell you about that?  I was on my way into Seattle when the motorcycle that I had at the time went out on me and some people were setting up thermal scanners to try to trap transgenics and I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  If Alec and Max hadn’t been in the right place at the right time, I would have ended up like Biggs.”

“Yikes,” Audrey said, wincing.  “It makes me feel lucky as hell, that’s for sure.  In the twelve years since I’ve been out here in the real world, I haven’t had too many close calls.”  She took another sip of her coffee before looking at Dylan cautiously.  “You’re not pissed at me and my crew for running, are you?”

“No,” Dylan assured her.  “I’m not mad at your or anybody in your family.  To be perfectly honest, I’ve also wanted to run from Manticore.  Alec and Biggs were the only reasons that I didn’t make a go of it.”

“They were the only reasons?” Audrey repeated.  “But what about your unit?  Your family?  Didn’t you want to stay behind for them?”

“Maybe a little bit,” Dylan conceded.  “But we weren’t like you and your group.  Ninety-nine percent of the units, no matter what the X-series, weren’t that close.  I mean, we got along fine most of the time, but I wouldn’t have considered us a family.  Hell, the night of the fire, I asked the two youngest members of my unit to stay close to me after we got over the fence, but they bailed the second that we stopped to catch our breath.”

“For your sake, I hope that they’re okay,” Audrey said.  “But if they chose to disregard the actual concern that you showed for their safety, then there’s nothing that you can do about it, Dylan.  I’m not saying that you should just say ‘screw them,’ just that there’s nothing that you could have done.  Face it, they couldn’t have been any older than thirteen or fourteen, right?  They’re only now hitting adolescence.  They were gonna be brats then no matter how nice you were or how much they actually cared about you as their commanding officer.”

“I guess you’re right,” Dylan admitted.

“Of course I am,” Audrey agreed.  She grinned impishly.  “You wanna talk about teenage brats?  You should have seen me seven or eight years ago when Zack would swing around to check up on me.  Man, did I give him a hard time or what?”

Dylan laughed.  “I can’t believe that you were ever like that.”

“I went through those glory years just like everybody else,” Audrey confirmed.  “And looking back on them, I can say with total certainty that I understand why people yap about how junior high is the worst time in school for kids.”

“It—“  Dylan was interrupted by a knock on the door.  “Yeah?”

“Joshua made doughnuts this morning and you better be decent,” Alec announced as he opened the door and walked inside.  He tossed the paper bag that he was holding to Dylan.  “Chow down.  Oh hey, Audrey.”  Alec grinned wickedly.  “I didn’t know that you would be here this morning.”

“I thought I would stop by.”  Audrey shrugged.  “Nothing wrong with popping over to see a friend.  You just did.”

“Yeah, but—ow!”  Alec rubbed his side where Dylan had elbowed him and glared at his friend.  “Why and how did you do that?”

“Why?  That’s obvious.  How?”  Dylan smirked and gestured to Audrey.  “A distraction can be a beautiful thing.”  He noticed Audrey blush and the smirk turned into a shyer smile.

“Hmmm, true,” Alec mused.  “Literally as well as figuratively, huh?”

Dylan shook his head.  “You’re impossible.”

“And you’ve got coffee in this joint.  Don’t mind if I do,” Alec said, walking over to the kitchen to pour himself a cup.

“He’s something else, isn’t he?” Audrey observed.

“Yeah,” Dylan agreed.  He looked at Audrey and they both smiled as Dylan tentatively took her hand.  “He is.”  His smile grew as he felt the earlier nagging feeling mostly dissipate.  Dylan still gave Audrey’s hand an extra squeeze, though.

TBC