Nightmares Redux -- Chapter 7

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.).

Max took the potatoes out from the oven and set them down on top of the stove just as the phone rang. She quickly turned off the over, threw off the oven mitts she’d been wearing, and raced to pick it up. “Max here.” She looked over to see Gabrielle standing in the entrance to the kitchen and motioned for her to wait. “Yeah. Good. Perfect, I’m glad that everything’s cool with them. Thank you so much, Dix. ‘Bye.” She hung up the phone. “What is it, Gabby?”

“I was just wondering if you needed anything,” she said.

Max smiled sympathetically. “I know how bored you are. I’m sorry.” They both looked over towards the front door. “You can go get the door and let your uncle and cousin in, though.”

“Thanks,” Gabrielle said. She went over to the door and opened it. “Hi, Uncle Jeff. Hi, Kylie. Come on in.”

“Thanks,” Jeff said. He stepped inside and gave Gabrielle a hug. “It’s great to see you, Gabby.” He let go of Gabrielle and gave Max a hug. “Hey, Max. How have you been doing?”

“Since yesterday?” Max teased. She started to reply, but stopped when Zack came down the stairs. She went over to him and gave Zack a kiss. “Hey, sweetie.”

“Hey,” Zack said. He gave Max a kiss of his own. “Who was on the phone?”

“That was Dix,” Max informed him. “Miho had just phoned him from Tokyo. She told Dix that all of her people are good. I think that’s everybody. Let’s see, Javier, Marie, and Mike called in this morning, and Constantine filled us in this afternoon. Yeah, that makes all of our overseas friends.”

“Is it going to be just us tonight?” Kylie asked.

“No,” Zack said. “Syl and Krit will be coming over with Ronnie and Dean later. Jace, Victor, and Maxine should be here any minute now. We invited Alec, Brin, Anthony, and Jillian over, but they couldn’t make it.”

“They couldn’t?” Gabrielle said, trying to hide her surprising disappointment.

“Sorry,” Max apologized. “Brin said they needed to have a family discussion tonight about whether or not it would be safe to send Jillian to school on time.”

Then why the hell would Tony have to be at home? Gabrielle sighed and put on a smile, though she had a feeling her mother wasn’t buying it. “It’s just as well. Tony would have hogged all the good food if he’d come.” She started to say something else, but the sound of a car pulling up in front of the house distracted her, and she and the others looked in the direction of the front door as a person got out and started walking towards the house, the car driving off. Jeff’s face suddenly lit up and he nearly flew to the front door, flung it open, yanked Becky inside, and spun her around.

“I can’t believe it!” He set his wife down and kissed her deeply. “What are you doing here? I thought that you told me that the earliest flight that you could take back from Denver wouldn’t get into Seattle-Tacoma until nine tonight.”

“You thought right. Fortunately, I turned out to be wrong,” Becky said, grinning. “I was so pissed off that I couldn’t get a flight out last night or earlier today. I had to go on standby and I got lucky and got on the first flight after that. Didn’t think that would have happened, but it did.” She walked over to Kylie and gave her a huge hug. “Oh, sweetie. Thank goodness that you’re safe.”

“Of course I am, Mom,” Kylie assured her.

Zack walked up to Becky and hugged her. “Welcome back, baby sister.”

“It’s good to be back,” Becky said. She sniffed. “Something smells good. What do you’ve got cooking, Max?”

“Roasting a chicken,” Max answered. “I also just took some potatoes out of the oven. The chicken should be ready in fifteen minutes or so.”

“Good. I’m getting hungry,” Zack said. He hugged Max from behind.

“Be patient and you’ll get your food,” Max teased, turning around in his embrace so that she was facing Zack. She leaned forward and gave him a kiss.

Kylie made a face. “Looks like it’s parental PDA time.” The doorbell rang and she perked up. “Saved by the bell.”

“If we’re lucky,” Gabrielle agreed. She walked over to the door and opened it to reveal, Jace, Victor, and Maxine. Jace and Victor were mid-kiss and Maxine looked mildly annoyed. Gabrielle turned back to Kylie and gave her younger cousin a shrug. “I guess not.”

“Lucky about what?” Maxine wondered. She walked inside the house and sat down on the couch with a sigh.

“Maxine, I thought you were happy about the chance to get out of your apartment,” Jace said.

“I am! That doesn’t mean that this whole situation doesn’t bug the living daylights out of me,” Maxine pointed out. She sighed. “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to sound like a spoiled brat.”

“Understood,” Jace said. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.” She gave her daughter a smile, leaned against Victor, and snuggled close when he put his arm around Jace’s shoulders.

Gabrielle sighed. “Well, it was a nice reprieve from the mushiness for awhile.” Her cell phone rang. She took it out of her pocket and looked at the number displayed on the front. “Excuse me.” She went upstairs. Kylie and Maxine followed her.

“I really feel bad for the kids,” Jeff said sympathetically as he sat down on the couch. “Don’t get me wrong, I know how tough it’s got to be for the younger kids that have been temporarily relocated to Terminal City, especially for those whose parents couldn’t move in with them, but it’s not all that easy for the older ones, either. They might be at least somewhat aware of what the situation is, but seeing their frustration at having their normal lives restricted to some degree or another frustrates me as well.”

“Speaking of the situation, what’s the latest?” Becky asked. She took a seat next to her husband.

“All known foreign transgenics have checked in. They’re all cool,” Max said. She glanced over at Jace and Victor. “Got that bit of info right before you guys came over. There haven’t been any known attempts in the past twenty-four hours, and only one kidnapping total in the forty-eight since we agreed about the safety plan for the kids and started to implement it.”

“How many kidnapped children or adults does that make?” Victor wondered.

Zack’s eyes were as hard as ever. “A grand total of forty-three second-generation X-series, plus three X9s that had their barcodes temporarily removed for reasons that we’re not sure of.”

“Jesus,” Becky said quietly. “What about the children of the Psy Ops transgenics? They look as normal as we do.”

“We’re lucky on that front so far,” Max answered. “None of them are missing, and their parents are following the same plan for them as we are for our kids.”

“We better find out what’s going on soon,” Jace said.

“We’ve already got some of the five Ws,” Jeff said hopefully. “We know the ‘What’ and at least some of the ‘Where’ and ‘When.’ All that’s left is the ‘Who’ and ‘Why.’”

“How easy will that be, though?” Becky mused.

Gabrielle flipped open her phone when she was halfway up the stairs. “Gabby here.”

“Hey,” Anthony said.

“Hey, yourself,” Gabrielle returned, frowning. Anthony’s voice had been cheerful enough, but she could pick up on the underlying weariness in it. “Are you okay?”

“Technically, yeah,” Anthony said. “We just had a nice discussion about Jillian and school. Boy, was that one fun.”

“Huh.” Gabrielle, Kylie, and Maxine went inside Gabrielle’s bedroom. Gabrielle sat down on her bed before she continued to talk with Anthony, keeping her voice quiet enough so that none of the adults downstairs would be able to hear her. “I’m going to take a gander that it didn’t exactly go very well.”

“You could say that,” Anthony agreed. “It started out well enough…until Dad brought up the topic. Jillian got this really annoyed look on her face and asked Dad if he was joking. Dad said that he wasn’t, so Jill tried pointing out that her school was more than fifty miles away from here. Mom decided to jump in at that point by saying that it was still too close for comfort for her to be there all by herself during the week. Jillian started to get upset by then and Mom started yelling at her.” He sighed. “That was the first time I ever heard my mom yell at anybody, much less Jillian or me. Dad played peacemaker and got Mom and Jillian to calm down. To make a long story short, they agreed that Jillian would miss at least a couple of days of school. After that, I guess it depends on what the situation is like at that point.”

“It sounds like our parents are taking this as badly as we are,” Gabrielle commented.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Anthony agreed. “Anyway, I called Mitch after the family talk and we ended up deciding to go out to get some pizza with Jade and Julia. Do you and Maxine want to come with? We’re taking Uncle Biggs’ van, so there’ll be plenty of room for everyone. Hell, Kylie can come along if she wants. I took pity on Jillian and invited her, too.”

Gabrielle laughed at the return of Anthony’s usual tone of voice. She glanced over at her cousins, who were nodding eagerly. “Yeah, we’re in. I hope the parental units won’t throw too big of a fit over it. I don’t see why they should. We’re going to be in a very public place.”

“And we’re a large group of people, too,” Anthony said. “If that doesn’t sway them, just tell them that they can meet you at the front door when we drop you off when we’re done.”

“Gotcha,” Gabrielle acknowledged. “When are you coming to pick us up?”

“We’re about to turn onto your street as we speak,” Anthony said cheerfully.

“You really are full of yourself.” Gabrielle shook her head, but she had a smile on her face.

“Just for you,” Anthony said. Gabrielle bit her lip at the strange shiver that ran from her head to her toes at those words. “See you in a few.”

“See you.” Gabrielle disconnected, put her cell phone back in her pocket, and ran downstairs, Kylie and Maxine hot on her heels. “Mom, Dad, that was Tony. He, Jillian, Mitch, Jade, and Julia are coming by to pick us up and we’re going for pizza. Don’t worry, there’ll be eight of us and we’re definitely going to stay in public. Please, can we go?”

The adults exchanged looks before Zack nodded. “Since you are going to be in that large of a group in public, then yes. Don’t forget to be extra careful.”

“We won’t forget,” Kylie promised.

Max smiled at them as a horn honked outside. “Go and have some fun. You need a break from this stress. Have a good time and call when you’re on your way home so that we know when to meet you.”

“We will,” Gabrielle said. She, Kylie, and Maxine waved to the adults as they headed out the door.