Together -- Chapter 36

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.).

Notes: Some spoiler-ish stuff for “...And Jesus Brought a Casserole.”

Max looked over at Becky as they stood in front of Logan’s front door the next day. “Are you sure that you’ll be okay?”

“Like I told Zack, even with a bad shoulder and a concussion, I can still kick Logan’s ass from here to next week,” Becky said.

“That’s not what I meant,” Max said.

“I don’t know,” Becky admitted. She took a deep breath. “I’m just so damn furious with Logan that I can barely think straight. I don’t want to blow my cover before I’m supposed to. I should be able to do this. I mean, I’ve managed to control myself when I’ve been in front of Lydecker more times than I can count.”

“If you can’t completely control yourself, try to pass it off as crabbiness because you’re injured,” Max said.

Becky nodded. “I’ll try. What about you?”

“I don’t know, either,” Max said. “I know what we have to do and I know that there’s absolutely no way around it, but I still feel a little sick about it, mostly about the fact that it’s come to this in the first place.”

“I know what you mean,” Becky said sympathetically.

“I hope you’re ready to earn that Academy Award. Here goes,” Max said. She glanced towards the stairs where Zack and Maggie were waiting and knocked on Logan’s door.

“Just a minute,” Logan shouted from inside. Becky and Max waited a moment before the door opened. “Hey, you guys. Come on in.”

“Thanks,” Max said. “You look pretty chipper today.”

“I feel pretty chipper today,” Logan agreed. It helps when you know that the man who stole your girlfriend is dead! He looked back at Becky and did a double take when he noticed the sling on her left arm and the bruising on her right. “What happened to you?”

“I fell,” Becky told him.

“Were you trying a trick on your motorcycle?” Logan guessed.

Not on my motorcycle, but... “It was a hell of a trick, all right. Too bad it didn’t work the way I’d hoped it would,” Becky said.

“What’s on your agenda for today?” Max asked.

“Not much,” Logan said. “I was thinking of just relaxing today. How about you?”

“Blowing off work today,” Max said, shrugging. “I just feel like it.”

“I’ve got no choice about that one,” Becky said.

“Which reminds me,” Max said. She turned to Becky and gave her an irritated look. “I believe that Becky has something she has to apologize for.”

“Why do I have to apologize?” Becky asked, pretending to be annoyed. “I was only doing what you asked me to do!”

The award for best actress is a tie between Becky and Max for ‘Being Nice to the Bastard Who Tried to Get My Boyfriend Killed and Ended Up Almost Getting Becky Killed Instead’! “Even so,” Max said. She took off her backpack and took out Becky’s laptop. “I was worried about you a few weeks ago when I first told you about me and Zack, so I asked Becky to keep an eye on you. She did what I asked a little too well. Double click on the icon marked ‘Hawk.’”

Logan did that and blinked in surprise. “This is a tap into the penthouse’s security cameras.”

“Yeah, it’s a live feed, too,” Becky informed him. She pointed to the camera in the corner of the living room with her good hand. “Wave to the camera, Maxie!”

Max waved and Logan saw her waving on the screen. “Wow. I don’t know whether to be annoyed or impressed.”

“Oh, there’s more,” Becky said. “When you double click on one of the rooms, you get the full audio, too. You can also save parts of the footage if you want. Open the file labeled ‘sample’ and I’ll show you. It starts playing automatically.”

“Sure,” Logan said. He did what Becky asked and a window popped up. It was Logan in the computer room just two minutes before he called White. Logan watched the footage with Max and Becky. He saw himself reach for his cordless phone in the footage and glanced at the time in the corner of the window and went pale and tried to get up, but Max held him down in the chair he was sitting in. He sat there and watched and heard himself selling out Zack to White. He stayed frozen in place after Max had stopped the footage.

“Well?” Max demanded. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”

“I—I—it’s not what you think,” Logan stammered.

“Then tell me what it is, because it looks to me like you sold my brother out,” Becky said, her voice cold.

“I didn’t,” Logan protested.

“Then what did you do?” Max said. “Damn it, Logan! How could you do something like that?”

“That’s his problem, Max,” Becky reminded her. “I always knew it, remember? He doesn’t stop to think of the big picture.”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Logan said angrily. He looked over at Becky and shrank back into his chair. “I did.”

“Pray tell, how?” Becky said. She leaned closer to Logan. As injured as she was, she didn’t look any less intimidating at that moment. “Please enlighten me. You better make it good, you sorry son-of-a-bitch.”

“Your asshole of a brother wasn’t good enough for Max!” Logan said. He managed to get the courage to stand up. “I was only thinking of Max!”

“Wrong answer,” Max said. She shoved him back into his seat.

“I believe it goes something along the lines of ‘I’m a selfish bastard,’” Becky corrected Logan.

“I did it for you!” Logan insisted. “I did it for us!”

“Bullshit!” Max said angrily. “You did it for you and that’s it! Maybe in some part of your warped mind you were thinking of me, but come on, Logan, how selfish can you get? You are no better than the people you investigate.”

“That’s not true!” Logan protested.

“You are just so amazingly full of it,” Becky said. She continued to glare at Logan, who was looking even more scared. She made a face. “Can you please make an effort not to piss yourself? No, I’m not psychic, I just know the warning signs.”

“Oh, and Logan?” Max said. “One more thing. Becky, will you tell Logan how you really got injured?”

“Glad to, Max,” Becky said. She leaned forward and looked Logan right in the eyes. “I was chased across the rooftops downtown at about nine-ish last night by our good buddy Special Agent White and in my escape, not only did I have a bullet graze my right arm as I was being chased, but I had no choice but to attempt to jump a too-large gap between two buildings. I missed by an inch or two and I took a ten-story plunge down and you bet I would have died if I hadn’t landed purely by luck in a half-full dumpster.”

Logan trembled. Oh crap, she almost...wait a second, Becky was almost killed?! “You were almost killed? But...”

“I think he might be finally growing a brain,” Becky said with a chilly smirk as she and Max turned towards the door and Zack walked in.

“What’s the matter, Cale?” Zack said. His voice was even colder than his sister’s. “You act like you haven’t seen anybody come back from the dead before.”

“Oh shit,” Logan squeaked.

“He acts so high-and-mighty all the time, but when his plans go to hell, he’s just a little baby,” Zack hissed. He grabbed Logan’s right hand a squeezed. He grinned when he heard bones snapping. “Oooh, does that hurt, Cale? Huh?”

“You bastard,” Logan said.

“Oh, I’m a bastard?” Zack wondered. “Let’s recap what you did.” He smacked Logan across the face hard. “You tried to deliver me to the executioner. Hell, I should kill you just for that one. But do you know what your biggest mistake was?” He leaned in close to Logan, who was almost convulsing with fear. “You put my youngest sister in danger. I watched her miss that building ledge and for a few moments, I thought she was dead. Do you have any idea what it was like to watch that?”

“In—case you—“ Logan started to say.

“That’s right, I did die in your arms that night,” Max recalled. “What a waste of a dying moment that was. Good thing I’ll get another crack at it eventually.”

“And in case you were wondering where I was during your special moment,” Zack said. “I was getting shot in the shoulder by my own X7 clone and taken to the infirmary where I saw Maxie flatlining and I took Renfro hostage and demanded that they transplant Max and what did I do, Logan? I was going to sacrifice myself for Max and you can damn well bet that I would have if Brin hadn’t stopped me.” He smirked. “You know, I really should thank her for that.”

“You animal,” Logan snapped.

“Hey, Max, do you know where Logan keeps getting this stupidity from?” Becky asked, but her eyes were still on Zack and Logan.

“Beats me,” Max said. “I was never able to figure that one out.”

“You shouldn’t have been sleeping during biology class, Cale,” Zack said. He grabbed Logan around the throat, slowly cutting off his oxygen. “You’d know that humans are just extremely advanced primates, and what are primates? Animals. You have as much of an animal side as the three of us. The difference between us is that our side is different than yours and we acknowledge it and accept it. You just deny it.”

Logan was really panicking. Oh crap, I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die! Wait a second, I’m wearing the exoskeleton! I just have to jump... This thoughts trailed off as he realized in horror that Becky and Max had guessed what he was about to do and yanked the exoskeleton off.

“Don’t bother trying to pull something on someone who’s been trained to read body language unless you’re a much better liar,” Becky said, smirking.

“So, you’re going to kill me?” Logan said.

Zack looked him right in the eyes. “You’re going to kill yourself, Logan.” He reached into one of his jeans pockets and pulled out a pair of gloves and put them on before he pulled out his gun. “I really should make you suffer more. But for Max’s sake, I’ll make this quick for you.”

“Come on,” Becky said softly to Max. “I don’t think you’re going to want to watch this.”

Max nodded and turned back to Logan. “Good-bye, Logan. I wish it didn’t have to come to this.” She let Becky lead her out of the penthouse. Max sat down on the floor and started to cry quietly when she heard the gunshot.

Maggie came out from her hiding place and sat down next to Max. “Are you okay?”

“I will be, thanks,” Max said.

“That was not fun,” Becky said, shaking her head. “As angry as I am, things like that just aren’t fun at all.”

Zack came out of the apartment. “I left the gun in there with him and his prints are all over it.”

“We should make those adjustments to the security cam footage and grab anything we’ll need from the penthouse, not to mention get my laptop back,” Becky said. She took out a glove from her own pocket and put it on. Maggie took out a pair and did the same.

“Here,” Max said. She handed Maggie a piece of paper. “The fake suicide note.”

“Thanks,” Maggie said. She and Becky went inside the penthouse and Zack sat down next to Max and put an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m so sorry, Maxie,” he told her. “I really wish I didn’t have to do this. I know how much you still valued Logan’s friendship.”

“I know,” Max said. “I know that this was hard for you too in a way.”

“You do what you have to do,” Zack said. He shook his head. “Damn Manticore.”

“I hate to sound repetitive, but...” Max began.

“He just couldn’t take it,” Zack said. “He couldn’t handle a situation like that. We can handle so much. Logan’s never had any seriously hard times to put things into perspective for him. He did lose both of his parents before he was fifteen, but even so. He grew up in luxury. He had everything he ever wanted. He was used to getting everything he ever wanted. Even with Eyes Only in a way, you know? Our lives have been pretty much the opposite of his. We never had much and what we had was often taken away or could be taken away in a heartbeat. We learned to value each other and what we all had in ways Logan never could have if he didn’t go what we went through. I was jealous as hell when I figured out that you and Logan had some kind of relationship going last year. I’ll admit that I was furious. But I did let you go pursue it when I saw how much that Logan meant to you. I loved you—I still do and I will forever—enough to let you go pursue what I thought at the time that you really wanted. I knew that you would still be in my life or at least I’d have a chance that you’d still be in my life if I let you go.”

Max nodded. “You’re right.”

“Things are going to be okay,” Zack promised. “I swear, Maxie.”

“I know,” Max said. She just leaned against Zack and let him hold her.

TBC