Together -- Chapter 47

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.).

Max laughed and waved to her friends as she left Crash. She grinned as she walked down the street and pulled out her cell phone. After accessing her voice mail and listened to the message that had been left on it, she turned to walk in the direction of Becky’s apartment. Max entered the building, walked up the stairs and to the apartment, opened the door, and went inside. “I told you I’d leave the Halloween Party kind of early.”

“I know you did,” Zack said. He wrapped his arms around Max and kissed her. “Happy birthday, Maxie.”

“Thank you,” Max said. “I’m twenty-freaking-one years old now. They say it’s a big year, but I really don’t see why. The only big deal I can see about it or used to be about it is that you can legally drink and that doesn’t matter anymore.” She shrugged. “There’s probably something else important about it but I don’t care about that.”

“When I turned twenty-one, I was out checking up on Zane,” Zack said. “Neither of us did anything out of the ordinary that day. I don’t think I would have let Zane make a big deal out of it for me even if I had known then that it was my birthday.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you a present last month,” Max said.

“That’s okay, Max,” Zack said. “I’m not very big on receiving presents. I’m worse about giving presents.”

“That’s fine with me,” Max said. “Just having you here with me tonight is all the present that I want. Besides, I wouldn’t want whatever you got for Becky for her birthday.”

Zack looked a little surprised. “How did you know that I got Becky an automatic for her eighteenth birthday?”

“I didn’t know that it was an automatic, but I pretty much figured out that it was a gun,” Max said. “She did get you one for your birthday.” She laughed. “Most siblings give each other CDs and things like that for birthday present. What does this family give each other for their birthdays? Automatic weapons.”

“Only me and Becky,” Zack said. “Speaking of her, do you know when she’s going to be back from the Halloween party?”

“It’s about twelve-thirty now and the party officially ends at two and I’m pretty sure that Becky said that she didn’t want to stay all the way until then, so I think she’ll be back around one-thirty or so,” Max said. “Why?”

“I just wanted to know how long we had the apartment all to ourselves,” Zack said.

“She will beat the hell out of us if we ruin her bed,” Max said. She grinned. “Good thing I’m not in heat otherwise I think we would destroy it.”

“Yeah,” Zack agreed. He leaned down and kissed Max again, Max wrapped her arms around Zack’s neck and returned the kiss and pressed her body as close to Zack’s as she could. Zack took off Max’s leather jacket for her without stopping his kiss and tossed it onto the couch. Max started to reach for Zack’s shirt to pull it off of them when they suddenly jumped apart.

“Sometimes, I hate having super-human hearing,” Max said, shaking her head.

“She needs to work on her timing,” Zack said. “I thought—“ He sniffed. “Never mind.”

“Yeah, never mind indeed,” Becky said as she walked into her apartment, some vomit on the front of her shirt. “I’m just back for a few minutes so I can change my shirt and then I’ll be going back to the party and you guys can go back to attempting to destroy my bed if you want.”

“What happened?” Max asked. “It’s a little early for even Sketchy to lose it.”

“It wasn’t Sketchy, believe it or not,” Becky said. “It was some random drunk moron who had a few too many rum and cokes and decided to try to cop a feel on me. It wasn’t my fault that he couldn’t hold what was in his stomach after a knee connected with it.”

“Becky, why do you always have to get violent with men when they try to do something like that to you?” Zack said. “I’m sure that they deserve it, but it could draw too much attention to you even if you are as careful as I know that you are.”

“Hey, I didn’t hit the guy for once,” Becky said. “I got out of the way before his hand could connect with a body part of mine and no, I didn’t move too quickly to get out of the way before you even ask and Jeff saw it and he happened to be close enough to the guy at the time to hit him without drawing attention. Unfortunately for me, the guy happened to turn around back to me and that was when he threw up.” She went into her room and shut the door behind her.

“I love my baby sister, I really do...” Zack said. He laughed a little. “This feels so damn...normal.”

“It does,” Max agreed. “You’re just another guy who got caught in the act with his girlfriend by a family member.”

“Yeah, next time you guys decide to try to christen my apartment, I’d wait until I’m not within minutes of it and can’t get back to it as easily,” Becky teased.

Zack rolled his eyes. “Have you been drinking at the party?”

“Just one beer so far,” Becky said. “You know I’m not a big drinker.”

“I know,” Zack said. “I’m still trying to come up with an explanation for your behavior.”

Becky grinned. “Like I’ve said before, it’s one of those unwritten brother-sister rules. Don’t worry, I’m leaving again now. I really am sorry if I ruined anything you had planned.”

“It’s okay,” Max said. “Go back to the party and have fun and make sure that Sketchy can at least pretend to stand on his feet by the end, okay?”

“I will,” Becky promised. She left.

“I wish that she didn’t have a point, but she actually did,” Max said. “We probably should wait until she isn’t as close to the apartment as she is before we try anything in it when we have it to ourselves.”

“I know,” Zack agreed. “What do you want to do?”

“Since we do have the place to ourselves, what do you say that we get a few pizzas and come back and enjoy them and Becky’s satellite TV hookup?” Max suggested.

“You want chicken and anchovy pizza again,” Zack said.

“It’s not my fault that there’s actually a place around here that makes it,” Max said, grinning.

“I don’t know what to do with you sometimes,” Zack said. He smiled. “But that’s one of the things that I love about you.”

Max grinned up at him. “I love you, too.”

TBC