Together -- Chapter 45

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Logan, 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.).

“Tonight’s the night!” Sketchy said gleefully at Jam Pony. “Halloween is finally here! Who’s gonna be at the party at Crash tonight?”

“You know I’ll be there,” Original Cindy said. “And for the ten thousandth time, I’m not going to tell you what my costume is. It’ll be a surprise.”

“Oh, come on,” Sketchy complained. “Please tell me?”

“No,” Original Cindy insisted.

“Don’t forget, we’ll also be celebrating two milestones tonight,” Jeff said. He grinned even as both Becky and Max punched him in the arm. “Becky’s eighteenth birthday and Max’s twenty-first.”

“As of today, I can legally drink,” Max said. She rolled her eyes. “Whoopie.”

“You’ll be at the party tonight, right?” Sketchy asked.

“I’ll be there, but I don’t know how long I’ll stay,” Max said. “I might blaze early.”

Becky snickered. She knew why Max would want to leave the party early. “You leave a party early? You must have a pretty good reason if—damn! Do you have to punch so hard?”

“Yes I do,” Max said.

“Come on, let’s calm down,” Alec said. “I’m sure Max here has a perfectly good reason to leave a party early. Then again, this is Max, so—“ Alec was cut off when Max hit him. “Somebody’s violent today, aren’t we?”

“Speaking of parties,” Sketchy spoke up. “You haven’t been hanging out with me at the bars as much as you used to, Alec.”

Alec tried not to roll his eyes. “I’ve said no to hanging out with you maybe two or three times less than usual in the past month, Sketchy. That’s not a big deal. Maybe I’m trying to grow up a little.”

“Okay, sure. Call me crazy, but aren’t you the guy who only a few weeks ago plastic wrapped the toilet here?” Original Cindy said skeptically.

“For the record, Sketchy was the one who actually plastic wrapped the toilet. I was only his lookout,” Alec said.

“Details,” Original Cindy demanded. “Spill it. What’s the dealio here? Original Cindy can tell that something’s up.”

“We’re all friends,” Sketchy said. “It can’t be that bad.”

“Well, I was going to tell you guys anyway, but please don’t go blabbing it around. I’m still getting used to this myself,” Alec said.

“I won’t,” Original Cindy promised. “I can’t make any guarantees about Sketchy here.”

“I won’t, I swear,” Sketchy said. “What is it?”

How should I phrase this one? It’s not like I can just say ‘I am a genetically engineered super soldier and while I was still in the facility where I was born and raised, I was assigned to impregnate one, well technically two but I only impregnated one, of the women that my identical twin, who I never met by the way, considered to be his sister.’ That’d be seriously funny, in my opinion, but I don’t know if Sketchy would find it funny. Well, he would but I don’t want him repeating that to anybody! “I was hanging out with an ex-girlfriend of mine that I’d run into again last month,” Alec told them. “It turns out that she’s pregnant with my kid.”

“Holy shit,” Sketchy said. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” Alec said. “We’re friends again and friends occasionally hang out together.”

“That would make even you grow up,” Original Cindy remarked.

“Ex-girlfriend?” Jeff repeated. His eyes sparkled with mischief. “Not the one who beat the crap out of you when you tried to make out with her on your first and only date with her, right?”

Alec glared at him and ignored Max and Becky’s laughter. “No, not that ex. It’s the one who turned out to be an old friend of the one who allegedly beat the crap out of me on our date.”

“Oh, that one,” Jeff said.

“Look, I don’t want everybody to know about it just yet,” Alec said. “I’m still not completely used to the idea and it’s my kid!”

“Don’t worry, my lips are sealed,” Sketchy said.

“Yeah, until his fifth shot of whiskey at Crash tonight,” Original Cindy commented.

“You know damn well that I don’t drink whiskey,” Sketchy said, grinning. “I’m a tequila man.”

“Why are all of you just standing there?” Normal asked.

“Same reason we stand here every day,” Max said cheerfully.

“Get your behinds in gear, people,” Normal said. “I don’t have all day.”

“Speaking of tequila, that man needs some of it,” Original Cindy said as they walked to their lockers. “He needs to loosen up in the worst way.”

“Has he always been this uptight?” Jeff asked.

“Oh yeah,” Original Cindy said. “I’ve been working here for almost two years now and he has not changed one bit since he hired me. I’m starting to think that’s impossible for Normal to loosen up and be like an average person.” She shrugged. “I don’t think that I want Normal to loosen up. Can you all imagine what that would be like?”

“Not really,” Max said. “What I can picture is pretty damn ugly. I think that it’s pretty safe to say that Normal is just fine the way he is now.”

“Do you think he’s ever dressed up for Halloween?” Sketchy wondered.

“For the last time, I am not telling you what my costume is,” Original Cindy said.

“I didn’t ask again,” Sketchy said.

“I can read your mind,” Original Cindy said.

“Speaking of loosening up,” Sketchy muttered. Original Cindy just rolled her eyes and slammed her locker shut. “What are you going as, Max?”

“She’s weird enough not to need a costume,” Alec teased.

“You are just too funny, Alec,” Max said. “And for your information, I’m going as a cat burglar.” In other words, I’m going as myself.

“Becky?” Sketchy asked.

Becky shook her head. “No costume. I don’t really like that whole thing.”

Sketchy looked pretty surprised. “You don’t like dressing up on Halloween?”

“No,” Becky said. “It’s just not my thing. Besides, my parents never let me out of the house to go trick-or-treating so even if I was into dressing up on Halloween, it would have been a total waste.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll still be at Crash tonight.”

“Are you slackers deaf? Bip bip bip! It’s time for you to start delivering packages!” Normal said.

“Come on,” Max said. “Let’s all at least pretend to work so that Normal doesn’t have an aneurism.”

TBC