Nightmares Redux -- Chapter 2

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, 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:  I went back and changed both the title of this fic as well as the designation of one of the transgenics that was mentioned in the prologue from what they originally had been.  I hope this doesn't confuse anybody.

“If we don’t find a parking space, I will break somebody’s neck,” Max muttered as she scanned the parking lot early the following afternoon, trying to find a place to park her car.

Gabrielle looked amused. “I’ve got my nine-millimeter on me. Do you want to just use that?”

“Very funny,” Max said. “I don’t care that you have a license to use that thing or that your father taught you how to shoot when you were young. You know how I feel. As long as I’m around you, it’s nothing short of life or death. Clear?”

“Crystal, Mom,” Gabrielle said. “I know and I was just joking before.” Max finally found a space and pulled into it. Gabrielle looked around and made a face when she saw how far back in the parking lot they were. “Maybe we should have taken our motorcycles here. We could have just chained them up over there near the front and if there’s anybody who can ride and carry home whatever we’re going to end up buying today, it’ll be us.”

“You make us seem like big mallrats,” Max remarked. “I never liked shopping.”

“Ditto,” Gabrielle said. They left the car and headed towards the mall and went inside. “I’m starting to wish that I didn’t decide to take that art history class as an elective for this semester. That book is so far on backorder at the bookstore at school that by the time that it won’t be on the shelves there again until a week after classes start and I know that I’m going to need the book on the first day.”

Max shrugged. “That’s how things go sometimes, Gabby. Besides, you will actually be prepared for your first day of that class and most of the other students will probably waiting for that book to come into the bookstore instead of coming here or whatever and you’ll be one up on them right from the start.”

“You’re starting to sound like Dad,” Gabrielle said, amused.

“It’s amazing what happens when you’ve known somebody for your entire life and have been married to said someone for the past twenty years,” Max deadpanned. She smiled and laughed along with her daughter, but stopped when she nearly ran into somebody, only barely managing not to physically collide with the other person. “I’m sorry.”

“Well, how about you watch where you are going, hmmm?” the other person replied in an accented voice. Max looked at the woman and immediately felt her hackles go up. The woman that she’d nearly collided with was about her age, maybe slightly older, and was glaring at Max.

“How about you watch your attitude, hmmm?” Max mocked. “In case you didn’t notice, I was in the middle of a conversation with somebody else. What’s your excuse?”

“I did nothing wrong,” the woman insisted. She checked the watch on her left wrist, a bored expression on her face.

“Nice piece,” Max conceded, looking at the watch herself. That is a nice piece. Wide wristband for a woman’s watch and leather at that, those actual diamonds surrounding the face…we’re talking a bare minimum of two grand here. “Where did you get that?”

“Not around here, that’s for sure,” the woman said snidely.

“I’m sorry, did something crawl up your rear end and die this morning?” Max asked sweetly.

The woman smirked. “You’re a charming one, aren’t you? No, nothing, as you put it, ‘crawled up my rear end and died’ today. I just happened to be standing here and minding my own business and you were the one that was not looking in front of you to see if there was anybody in your path. Do not blame me if you are not doing what you are supposed to be, hmmm?”

Max frowned. Where the hell does this bitch get off and tell me what I should be doing? Like I ever took that from anybody past age nine. A faint scent caught her nose and she managed not to make a face. And on top of that, she does not smell right. She doesn’t smell bad exactly, but it’s definitely not right. I swear, some of these humans have biochemistry that’s almost as weird as us. “Listen, lady, I am a grown woman so you definitely do not have any right whatsoever to tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing. My husband sure as hell doesn’t tell me what to do, much less a stranger that’s as pleasant to deal with as a chewed up wad of gum that somebody stuck underneath a table. If you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do than to deal with you. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“I get it,” the woman said. She gave Max and Gabrielle a long look before she walked off. Max and Gabrielle waited for several moments before continuing on.

“That woman…” Max said. “Ugh. Some people really need to learn basic manners before going out in public. She’d fit in nicely with Alec’s old crew.” She frowned. “There was something about her, though, that didn’t seem right. I couldn’t and still can’t put my finger on it. Damn. Did you get that vibe from her too, Gabby, or was it just in my whacked imagination?”

Gabrielle shook her head. “No, I was feeling that as well. I was fighting off the urge to show her how well Dad and Aunt Becky taught me martial arts the whole time that you were verbally beating her down.” She shrugged. “There’s not much that either of us can do about it. I wish there was.”

“You and me both,” Max assured her daughter. She took a deep breath and smiled. “How about we get that book of yours, then?”

“Yeah, let’s get that over with,” Gabrielle said.

Max laughed and followed Gabrielle to the book store. Get that over with…I wish that I could have beaten the hell out of that freaking woman and had gotten that over and done with. Come on, Max, get over it. She was a bitch but she went on her own merry little way. End of story.