Together -- Chapter 35

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.).

Zack sat in a chair next to his sister’s bed, just watching her sleep. Max had gone to get some food and Maggie was sleeping on the couch, so the apartment was relatively quiet.

She actually looks relaxed. Becky rarely looks this relaxed. She can’t really, just like I can’t. I don’t know if it’s a C.O. thing or if it’s just something in our blood or what. Zack sighed. I can’t believe she made it out of that ambush alive. I just thought...

“She’s right in front of you, Zack,” Max’s voice interrupted Zack’s train of thought. “She’s not going anywhere.”

“How did you know what I was thinking?” Zack asked.

“I know you,” Max said. She leaned down and gave him a kiss. “I brought a few pizzas back. I didn’t know how much Maggie would eat, so I got extra. I also got a bottle of tryptophan for you to take to Syl when you finally leave.”

“Thanks,” Zack said. “Do you think you’ll be ready for tomorrow?”

Max’s eyes looked troubled. “Ready or not, I’ll do my part. Logan went from friend number one to threat number one in two seconds. If we don’t do pull off our plan, then your life’s always going to be in danger from him, and Becky’s as well if Logan finds out what really went down, and...” Max looked towards the bedroom floor. “I’ve got no choice.” She bravely gave Zack a small smile. “Did you speak to Syl?”

“Yeah, I told her I was going to be delayed getting to her by a day or two,” Zack said. “I got her to agree to not come to Seattle and I told her everything. If we need any more help, she’s on stand by.”

“She’s not too far away herself, right?” Max said.

“Right,” Zack confirmed. “She and Krit are living together.”

“Oh,” Max said. She grinned. “About time.”

“That’s what she said when I told her about you and me,” Zack said. “I would have given her the lecture, but I’m too damn tired.”

Max took Becky’s desk chair and pulled it up next to the chair that Zack was sitting in and sat down and took Zack’s hand. “Are you okay, Zack?”

“I don’t know,” Zack admitted. “I’m just wondering how many more times I’m going to have to go through this. I can’t even begin to count how many close calls we’ve all had over the years.”

Max looked surprised. “I’d gotten the impression from you that I was the only ‘black sheep’ of our family.”

Zack shook his head. “No. Hell, I knew you could get yourself out of trouble just as easily as you could get yourself into it. You’ve always been that way.”

“Yeah,” Max said.

“I remember there was a time not too long after I’d begun to find you and the others after the escape that I was starting to think that I was going to run out of places to relocate Rena because she kept on getting into trouble,” Zack recalled. “I must have moved her at least eight or nine times within a three-month span before she finally settled down and stayed in Texas for the next three years.”

“That’s our Rena,” Max said, grinning. “I can certainly see why you’d had to move her around so much when we were younger. She was even more of a hell raiser than I was back in the day.”

“She still is,” Zack said. His face sobered again. “A few of those times, I got there by the skin of my teeth. At least once, I ended up cutting it so close that we both almost got caught and taken back to Manticore.”

“Rena’s fine now, right?” Max asked.

“She is,” Zack said. He looked down for a moment. “She got through, and you’ve gotten through, and Becky and others, but I wish I wasn’t too late for Ben or Tinga or Reese.”

Max was shocked. “Reese’s dead?”

“Five years ago,” Zack confirmed. “He was in Philadelphia at the time. Lydecker had caught onto him and he’d called me to let me know that he was in trouble. I was about eighteen hours out from his position at that point and I got there as fast as I could, but it was too late.” He paused before he continued to tell Max. “He’d actually evaded Lydecker on his own and called me when he got to a good hiding place. When I got there, he was dying. He died only a few minutes after I got to him.”

“How did he die?” Max asked.

“Progeria,” Zack said. “He must have started to develop the symptoms after he got away from Lydecker.”

Max was quiet. It must have been a double nightmare for him when we went to rescue Brin and seeing her like that. He lost another sibling to that damn disease. “Brin might be herself again, you know.”

“I know,” Zack said.

“Do you hate Brin for stopping you from sacrificing yourself for me?” Max asked.

“No,” Zack said. “I was angry at first when you told me what she’d done, but maybe part of me wants to believe that she didn’t see that it was you on the operating table and only saw me about to kill myself and she didn’t want me to die.”

Max nodded. “I think so, too. I don’t think Manticore totally converted her. They never really converted Jace, either. She stayed, but she broke the rules when she fell in love with Victor and he got her pregnant.”

“And you got her to totally break free,” Zack agreed. “Thanks for telling me where she was.”

“What happened when you went down to Mexico to see her after the fire? Was she surprised?” Max asked.

“She was,” Zack said. He smiled. “She said she should have known that I would have been able to surprise her, even with the eight or so years of training she had on me. She was thrilled to see me. Her daughter’s adorable.”

“Is she like her cousin at all?” Max asked.

“No. Little Max seems to be pretty normal so far”, Zack said. “She liked me, though.”

“That would classify her as not normal,” Becky mumbled.

Zack and Max jumped a little. “I’m sorry if we woke you up,” Max apologized.

“It’s okay,” Becky said. She turned her head to look at her alarm clock. “I would have had to have been woken up again in a few minutes, anyway.”

“Feeling better, baby sister?” Zack asked.

“A little,” Becky said. “Either that or whatever Maggie gave me a shot of hasn’t worn off yet.”

“Are you okay, Becky?” Max said. “Mentally okay.”

“I don’t know,” Becky confessed. “I’ve never come that close to dying before. I’m not used to being the one who needs to be rescued. I’ve always been the one to do the bailing out before. It’s like I would joke around to my younger brothers and sisters all the time: I’m the commanding officer. It’s part of the job description. I’m the oldest so I’m the one who saves everybody’s necks.”

“It’s okay to let someone rescue you once in awhile,” Zack told her. “If it wasn’t for Max, I’m not sure I could have stayed out of Manticore when they let me go so they could try to track the others through me.”

Becky nodded. “Yeah.”

“Why don’t you get some more sleep?” Max suggested. “It’s only three in the morning. One of us will wake you up again.”

“Okay,” Becky said. She smiled at them. “Thanks for getting me out of there. I owe you guys so much.”

“You’re family,” Max said. “You don’t owe us anything.”

Becky grinned. “Thank you.”

TBC