Together -- Chapter 34

Disclaimer: All of the characters that appeared on the TV show Dark Angel (Max, Zack, Logan, etc.) 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.).

Maggie stood outside the door of Becky’s apartment. She set down her bag with her medical gear and looked at her watch thoughtfully. She heard people coming up the stairs and sure enough, Becky and Max and Zack appeared a few moments later.

“Hey,” Maggie said. She wrinkled her nose. “No offense, Becky, but you smell like the inside of a toilet.”

“You’re close,” Becky said. “Dumpster.”

“Oh,” Maggie said. She took a good look at Becky. “You definitely look like you took a beating. What happened?”

“I’ll explain when we get inside,” Becky said.

“Okay,” Maggie said.

“My key should be in my pocket,” Becky said. She reached for her key with her right hand and was about to open the door when she saw that Zack had beaten her to it. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Zack said.

“Sit down and I’ll have a look at you,” Maggie said. She waited for Becky to sit down on the couch before she opened her bag and took out a small light and shone it in Becky’s eyes. “Yep, mild concussion. Can you take off your t-shirt so I can check your shoulder and stitch the graze on your other arm?”

“Yeah,” Becky said. She saw Zack start to turn around and smirked. “Relax, Zack, I’m wearing a tank top under this shirt.”

“Even with a concussion,” Zack muttered.

Becky carefully took off her t-shirt. “Not easy to do when you’ve only got one good arm and you’re knocked for a loop.”

“True,” Maggie said. She examined Becky’s injured shoulder for a few moments before she turned to Max and Zack. “Could one of you hold her still for a moment while I pop this back into place?”

“Sure,” Max said. She held Becky’s other shoulder to keep her still while Maggie put Becky’s left shoulder back into its proper place.

Becky hissed. “Damn, Maggie.”

“What are you talking about? That was gentle as hell,” Maggie said. “I know, I know, having a shoulder popped back into place is never fun, no matter how careful the doctor is.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a sling and put it on Becky’s left arm. “Keep this on until you get up in the morning the day after tomorrow. It should be pretty much 100 percent another few days after that. You should definitely be able to go back to work after you take the sling off as long as you don’t deliver anything too heavy until Thursday. It should be totally okay then.”

“Thanks,” Becky said.

“So, what exactly happened?” Maggie asked as she cleaned and stitched up the bullet graze.

“Well, first things first before I tell you why you had to come here tonight to patch me up,” Becky said. “Remember how I said to you and Kevin that Max had gotten the Manticore database from Renfro right after Renfro lit the match on the place and Logan Cale was working on decrypting it?”

“Yeah,” Maggie said.

“Well, Logan did decrypt it and we found out some interesting things,” Becky said. “Including the fact that Zack is actually my brother. As in we have the same parents.”

“Wow,” Maggie said. “I’m happy for you, Becky. You too, Zack.”

“Thanks,” Zack said.

“Anyway, Zack has been in love with Max ever since they were little,” Becky continued. “He admitted his feelings to Max a few weeks ago and she felt and feels the same way about him and they’re dating now.”

“So she broke up with Logan?” Maggie said.

“Yeah, I did,” Max said. “I tried to break it to him as easy as I could, but he still didn’t take it very well.”

“It seemed like he calmed down at least a little since then,” Becky said. “Zack hasn’t been around to the penthouse since around that time and that seemed to help Logan cool off, or at least that’s what we thought.” She closed her eyes and put her hand to her forehead. “You got anything for my headache? It feels like all you guys are sparring inside my brain.”

“I brought pain meds,” Maggie said. “I’ll give you an injection after I make sure there are no other significant injuries.”

“Zack was planning on leaving tomorrow to go check up on one of his other sisters,” Becky said. “Syl. You probably know her as 701. Anyway, Syl still uses tryptophan to control her seizures because she left before they figured out the permanent fix for the seizures unlike Max and Zack who were recaptured when the three of them and their brother Krit blew the DNA lab and subsequently had their seizures fixed then. Syl’s tryptophan supply was starting to run low and she was having a hard time locating more where she’s living now so Zack offered to bring some to her. He found out that some drug company or someone in said company was keeping a stash in their offices downtown and he was gonna go tonight. I told Max about it last night when we were at Logan’s and she seemed a little down, so later that night after she had gone back to her apartment and I was here with Zack, I offered to get the tryptophan for Zack so that he and Max could spend some more quality time together before they left.”

“That was really nice of you,” Maggie said.

Becky started to shrug out of reflex, but stopped just in time. “So I went over to the building as planned and after I got in, I had a feeling that something was off. It only got worse when I got to the correct floor and I was about to bail when I heard White and his men in the building.”

Maggie’s jaw dropped. “The guy who killed Suzanne?”

“The one and only,” Zack said.

“What was worse was what I heard them talking about over their walkie-talkies,” Becky said. In spite of the pain that she was in, her eyes were cold and hard as steel. “Those bastards had set a trap for Zack.”

Maggie quickly put two-and-two together. “Logan somehow overheard you and Max and set a trap for Zack because he got so jealous that he wanted Zack out of the way permanently, but you ended up getting caught in the trap instead.”

“Exactly,” Becky said. She and Max and Zack continued to tell her what happened.

“So then we realized that Becky had nowhere to go,” Zack said.

“My only option was to try to jump the gap to the next roof,” Becky said. “I didn’t have a choice. I almost made it, too. Another inch or two and I think I would have. If I didn’t land in that dumpster or if that dumpster wasn’t half full with trash...” She bit her lip and sat back as it hit her just how close she came to dying. She wiped the tears that fell down her cheeks with her good hand. “So that’s the story.”

“My God, Becky,” Maggie said softly. “You are so damn lucky.”

“The only mystery is why White is as fast as he was and how he kept going without even the slightest hint of pain after Becky had shot him in both of his legs,” Max said. “This is not a good sign.”

Maggie nodded and turned back to Becky. “Other than the concussion, dislocated shoulder, and bullet graze, your only other injuries are just a hell of a lot of bumps and bruises. You’re gonna be black-and-blue all over. You seriously need to rest, but don’t forget to be woken up every forty-five minutes tonight because of the concussion.”

“I’ll make sure to wake her up,” Zack said. “You should stay the night, just in case.”

“Do you see a resemblance between them? I’m having a hard time seeing it,” Maggie said to Max.

“I know what you mean,” Max deadpanned. “If I hadn’t seen the database, I wouldn’t know that they’re brother and sister.”

“Very funny,” Becky said.

“I’ll stay for the night,” Maggie said. “Zack does have a point. You got someplace for me to sleep?”

“You can have the couch,” Zack told her. “I’ll sleep in one of the chairs in Becky’s room tonight.”

“Thank you,” Maggie said.

“We still have another matter to think about,” Max said. “Logan.”

The fear temporarily vanished in Becky’s eyes as the venom came back full force. “He can rot in hell for what he tried to do and for what almost happened.”

“He almost got my youngest sister killed,” Zack said. His voice was every bit as angry as Becky’s was. “Nobody does that. Not if they have any plans for living a long life.”

“Some guys don’t take no for an answer,” Max said bitterly. “The bastard.”

“What are you guys gonna do?” Maggie asked. “Do you need my help? If you do, I’m there. I already lost one sister recently and he almost made me lose another. He deserves whatever you’re gonna give to him.”

“We’ll let you know if we need you,” Becky said. “What should we do? Should we just show Logan the footage of him ratting Zack out? The program I have automatically records everything and saves it for thirty-six hours before it deletes it if you don’t tell it otherwise.”

Zack shook his head. “Logan can just claim it’s doctored footage. It’s fairly easy to do something like that.”

“So we need to trap him somehow,” Becky said. Maggie got out a syringe of pain medication from her bag and held it out to Becky, but Becky shook her head. “After we figure out what we’re doing about Cale. Then you can give me the pain meds. I don’t want to be knocked out while this is going on.”

Max nodded and looked over at Becky’s laptop. She smiled a little. “I’ve got an idea.”

TBC