Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 14: Jace (X5-798)

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Jondy, 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 (Elle/X5-164, etc.).

About six years later…

I bit my lip in concentration and threw the dart at the center of the dartboard. It hit the bulls-eye dead on and I grinned and walked over to it and pulled it and the other three darts that I’d thrown at the board out and walked back to my spot. “Not bad.”

Jondy sighed and I could almost hear her rolling her eyes as well. “I don’t understand what the point is of having a dart board in this rec room. It’s too fucking boring. Even an X3 could hit the bulls-eye from the other end of the room with his or her eyes closed and with one hand tied behind his or her back.”

I turned around. “I don’t know and for your information, throwing darts happens to relax me. It clears my head.”

“Do you mean that there’s actually space for a brain in there?” Jondy said. “I thought that your skull was so thick that there wasn’t room for anything in your head.”

“Cut it out,” Zack said. “What has gotten into the two of you tonight?”

“Hey, Syl and I are having an off night,” Rena said. “Somebody’s got to take up the slack.”

“And how,” Syl remarked. “I think Jace is about this close to beating the crap out of Jondy.”

The door opened and Becky, Kyle, and Kevin walked in. “I hope we aren’t interrupting anything,” Kyle said.

“No, just a possible fight between Jace and Jondy,” Tinga said. “Come on in and have a seat somewhere. Where are the rest of you guys?”

“Still at their various classes,” Becky said. She sat down in a chair and picked up a magazine that was on a table. She looked at the magazine and made a face and put it back down. “We had Advanced Close Quarters Combat and we ended up finishing early because the trainer had gotten called to an emergency with some of the X4s. It was a heat fight.”

“They’re a few years older than us and they still haven’t gotten it through their heads to get their women to isolation in the infirmary the second the go into heat,” Brin said. She looked annoyed.

“I think that most of them know to do that,” Parker said. “Besides, it’s not like any of us have any room to talk.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean by that?” I said.

Parker snorted. “Not you, Jace, don’t get your underpants in a twist.” He pointed over to Eva. “I’m talking about Eva.”

Eva’s jaw dropped. “What the fuck are you talking about, Parker?”

“Drop the dumb blond act, sis,” Parker said. “Last year when half of us were away on that mission in Mississippi. Reese, Ben, Krit, and I were here and the four of us almost tore each other to pieces because you conveniently forgot to take yourself to isolation before the girls here could knock our asses for a loop.”

“I did not conveniently forget to take myself away from you guys,” Eva said indignantly. “My heat came a few days early that cycle. I couldn’t help it!”

Kyle laughed. “I thought the argument that Suzanne and Kevin had the other day was bad, but this one tops that. Nice job.”

“You seem to be in a good mood. What’s going on?” Jack asked.

“I found out earlier that I’m being sent on a mission,” Kyle said.

“Oh,” Gale said. “With whom and where to?”

“The members of Unit 7 that didn’t go out on that mission down to Florida,” Kyle said.

“That’s odd,” I said. “They rarely mix up groups of X5s and X6s to go on missions together that aren’t paired through the mentoring program. Why are you going and not somebody from X6 Unit 8?”

“I was a substitute,” Kyle said. “Somebody from that unit had been scheduled to go on the mission but they were injured in training this morning and I guess they won’t be cleared for active duty in time to be able to go on the mission and most of the rest of that unit just got back from another mission. Maybe they just looked at whoever was available and drew a designation at random. Who knows and who cares? I’ll be getting out of here for at least a week, maybe two weeks depending on how the mission goes.”

“So, where are you going?” Zane asked.

“Italy,” Kyle said.

Elle sighed happily. “Europe. I love going over to Europe on missions. Remember that one mission where we went to Barcelona? Those off hours were amazing! I actually got to go to the beach and tan myself for awhile.”

“Yeah, and you came back looking beet red from the sunburn,” Kenny teased.

“I did not have a sunburn,” Elle said. “My face was flushed because they sent us out to run some laps after we were finished debriefing and we only met up with you at dinner time.”

“Enough arguing, please,” Zack said. “What on Earth has gotten into you guys today?”

“Don’t waste energy trying to figure it out,” Max said. “Just accept it.”

“Good point, Maxie,” Zack admitted.

Kevin looked back and forth between them. “You know…never mind.”

“Never mind what?” Max asked.

“Nothing,” Kevin said innocently. He walked over to Becky and whispered something in her ear low enough so that the rest of us wouldn’t be able to hear him. Becky’s eyes actually widened for a second and I actually thought she was going to laugh out loud before she caught herself. Now I was curious. In the six years that I’d really known her, I’d learned that she was almost as bad as Zack sometimes. What did Kevin tell her?

“What did you say?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Kevin said.

“Will you tell me later?” Max asked sweetly.

Kevin shook his head. “That won’t work on me anymore, Max. I stopped having a crush on you when I was thirteen.”

“Yeah, and now he has a crush on Gale!” Kyle said gleefully.

“Kyle!” Kevin said indignantly. Both he and Gale blushed and the rest of us laughed. Even Zack and Becky smiled. “When are you leaving for Italy again?”

“Mission prep tomorrow and I ship out in two days,” Kyle said. He smiled. “Sorry, bro. You know that I love ya.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kevin said, pretending to be dismissive and getting another laugh out of the rest of us. Then he smiled and gave Kyle a hug. “I love you too, bro.”

“Who’s up for a round of pool?” Ben asked.

Becky looked at the clock on the wall and winced. “I would, but we should be heading back to our barracks soon. We’ve got less than thirty minutes until lights out.”

“You know, it’s kind of scary sometimes,” I said. “Anybody else think so?”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Rena agreed.

Becky and Zack both rolled their eyes. “Not again,” Zack said.

“It got dropped right into our laps, Zack,” I pointed out.

“No, it didn’t,” Zack said. He stood up. “Let’s get back.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” We gave him a mock salute and laughed again before we left the rec room and headed back to the barracks.