Nightmares Redux -- Chapter 8

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.).

“Thanks for the invite,” Gabrielle said to Anthony the following day as she walked into his apartment. She turned around to Max and smiled sweetly. “I’m safely indoors, Mom. You can go home now.”

Anthony nodded. “And while you’re at it, can you please take my mom with you?”

“Gee, thanks a lot,” Brin said from where she stood behind Anthony, pretending to be offended. She laughed and gave her son a hug. “You guys behave yourselves, okay?”

“I don’t know, Mom, we were thinking about terrorizing the neighbors by running naked and screaming through the halls,” Anthony deadpanned. The look on Brin’s face made him laugh. “Don’t worry, Mom. All Gabby and I plan on doing is talking and watching some DVDs. We’ll be absolutely fine. Go and have fun with Aunt Max.”

“Fine, fine, fine, the old ladies will clear out of your way,” Brin told him. She laughed, leaned up, and kissed her son on the cheek. “Have fun.”

“We will,” Gabrielle promised.

“Have a good time,” Max said. She and Brin left the apartment and Anthony finally shut the front door.

“About time,” he remarked.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. “Funny.” She walked over to the living room couch and flopped down on it. “Can you hook us up with something decent to watch?”

“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Anthony said. He walked over to the shelves that held his DVD collection, considered the selection, pulled one off of a shelf, and held it out towards Gabrielle. “What about this one? Does this work?”

“Yeah, that’s good,” Gabrielle agreed. “Pop it in.” She waited while Anthony put the DVD in and sat down next to her before grinning at him. “I love this movie. I laugh every damn time I see it.”

“Same here.” Anthony leaned back and sighed. “I had to give up on that job that I was going to start next week.”

Gabrielle blinked. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was,” Anthony confessed. “But we don’t know how long it’s going to be before everything gets straightened out and settled down and the office building is in a fairly remote location. If it was downtown, then it wouldn’t have been as big of a deal and I’d still go. But there are enough points along the routes that I could take to get there where somebody could make a grab. Believe me, I was pretty pissed when I came to this conclusion and called them.” He snorted. “Maxine not only works downtown, but is surrounded by other transgenics day in and day out. Mitch told me earlier today that the chances of him going back to school on time look pretty good considering the situation. But me? Nope, my life’s got to be even more on hold than everybody else’s.”

“What about the place where you had that internship the past two months?” Gabrielle asked. “Are they or can they keep you on?”

Anthony shook his head. “No, they can’t. I called them and asked if that were possible, but they said that they didn’t have any open positions. They said that they were lucky just to have the internships in their budget.”

“I’m sorry, Anthony,” Gabrielle apologized. The look on Anthony’s face broke her heart. She’d never realized how hard the situation was hitting him. The poor guy. What’s he going to do? What can I do for him? She smiled at him. “I know something that might cheer you up.”

“What the hell,” Anthony said. He shrugged. “Shoot.”

“Kylie dyed her hair,” Gabrielle told him. She snickered.

Anthony raised an eyebrow, but Gabrielle could see one of the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. “You’re kidding me. Kylie actually dyed her hair? When Jillian dyed her own hair hot pink last year, didn’t Aunt Becky threaten to lock Kylie up in her room until she was fifty if she did the same thing?”

“I remember that,” Gabrielle recalled. “But yeah, Kylie colored her hair. She only dyed it blond, though, not something unnatural like Jillian did. Aunt Becky and Uncle Jeff’s reactions were great. Well, I thought that they were. Kylie spent the night over at my house yesterday. After we got up this morning, she pulls out the box and swears me to secrecy about the dye job until she finishes it. Aunt Becky and Uncle Jeff came over to have brunch with us and to pick up Kylie and Kylie comes downstairs just after her parents get inside the house.” She cracked up. “You would have loved the look on Aunt Becky’s face, Tony. Kylie just says ‘Hi, Mom, what do you think?’ and Aunt Becky stares at her like a deer stuck in headlights. Uncle Jeff takes one glance at the expression on her face and cracks up before calming down and reassuring Aunt Becky that at least Kylie dyed her hair a natural color and that it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Aunt Becky snapped out of it and actually admitted that Kylie looked good as a blond. Which she does. She’s got the right complexion for it.”

“Have you ever thought about dyeing your hair?” Anthony asked. He snorted. “Wow, we certainly are having some scintillating conversation, aren’t we?”

Gabrielle couldn’t help laughing. “Yeah, we definitely are. And I haven’t felt like dyeing my hair blond or any other color, for that matter.” She made a face and shut off the movie. “Do you mind? I’m not really in the mood to watch this anymore.”

“Knock yourself out,” Anthony told her. “I don’t feel like watching it, either.”

“Thanks,” Gabrielle said. She stood up and walked into the kitchen. “I’m getting hungry. What about you? Got anything good in here?”

“Of course I’ve got something decent,” Anthony said. “Just give me a moment…” He reached up and opened one of his cabinets, withdrew a box, and held the item in front of him triumphantly. “No greater snack food in the world in a pinch than Ritz crackers.”

“You’re whacked,” Gabrielle stated.

“Maybe,” Anthony conceded. “But I think that you’re whacked even worse than I am.”

“Excuse me? What led you to that conclusion?” Gabrielle said.

“A couple of things,” Anthony told her. “The fact that—“

Gabrielle cut him off. “Never mind. I don’t think that I want to know. But I still say that you’re screwed up.”

“Only one thing that I can think of that’s messing with my mind,” Anthony said, stepping closer to Gabrielle.

“Oh?” Gabrielle prayed that Anthony would ignore the sound of her rapidly beating heart. “What’s that?” Anthony didn’t say anything, but instead leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. Gabrielle gasped in surprise against his mouth, but then relaxed and felt herself returning the kiss.

“You,” Anthony said softly when he and Gabrielle finally parted. “You’ve been screwing with my mind for years.” He gently moved a lock of Gabrielle’s brown hair away from her face.

“Whoa,” Gabrielle said. “I mean…” She was silenced by Anthony touching his finger to her lips.

“For once, would you stop talking and feel?” he said softly. Gabrielle could only nod and melted into his embrace as Anthony kissed her again.