Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 26: Max (X5-452)

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.).

I crawled into my bunk, lay down, and turned over onto my left side so that I was facing Jondy. “I honestly thought that vessel in Trainer Moore’s forehead was going to explode when 561 decided to be a smart ass to him when we had to run the second assault course earlier tonight with Unit 4. Doesn’t he know when to shut his mouth? At least with the guys here, they’re funny and they know not to do it directly to a trainer’s face.”

“I know,” Jondy said. “Not to mention that Trainer Moore has even less of a sense of humor than Lydecker.” She shrugged and smiled. “561 might not have been funny, but it sure was a gas to see Trainer Moore on the warpath on his sorry butt. I mean, that trainer’s so short and he got so red in the face when 561 pissed him off that it looked like a fire hydrant spouting off obscenities one after the other.”

I laughed. Jondy hit the nail right on the head. “I’ve got to give the trainer points for the most creative use of obscenities by a non-transgenic. I don’t think anybody can top Zack, Becky, or Rena when they hit full blown critical mass. Zack and Becky especially because it’s that much more of an impact because they’re usually pretty in control.”

“Lights out any second now,” Zack reminded us.

“We know,” I said. We lay back in our bunks and sure enough, the lights went out a few moments later. Once the guard has done his walk down our hall, I was sitting right back up. “When will they learn that lights out is next to useless for people that can see in the dark? Dumbasses.”

“Let’s see, when you consider how stupid the brass is and maybe the fact that the sevens aren’t that much smarter, oh and how smart us and the sixes are but how dumb I’ve heard some of the threes can be at least according to that one that I’d ran into in the hall the other day that was complaining about some of her unit mates…” Ben teased.

“My goodness, I didn’t realize that it was that complicated of a process,” Jondy said in mock shock. “You truly have enlightened me.”

“That’s our Ben for you,” Eva agreed. She sat up in her own bunk and reached underneath the collar of her t-shirt to scratch near her barcode. “Do you think that it would kill Manticore to get us shirts that don’t have labels that itch like mad?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask them?” Reese said. “’Excuse me, Colonel Lydecker, but I would like to request some t-shirts that do not have itchy labels attached. Is that possible, sir?’”

“How about you go get a pass out of here so you can go up to Interstate 90 and play in traffic?” Eva said.

“Creative,” Reese said. “That was about as funny as when Elle used that line on Zane two weeks ago.”

“Yeah, it—hey!” Elle said. She flipped Reese off. “Two things, you moron. Number one: whether my words were funny or not is irrelevant because I wasn’t intending for them to be funny. Number two: do you have to be such a jerk all of the time?”

“Somebody’s bitchy,” Reese said. He looked at Elle appreciatively. “But—“ He stopped suddenly. “Oh, shit.”

My eyes widened. The only time that Elle got that bitchy was right as she was starting to go into heat. If she didn’t get her ass into isolation within the next hour, things were going to go to hell in a hand basket quicker than anybody could blink. “Tinga? Could you do everybody a favor and get Elle over to isolation?”

“Consider it done, baby sister,” Tinga agreed immediately. She quickly stepped back into her cammo pants and after putting on her boots and throwing a sweatshirt on over her t-shirt, grabbed Elle by the arm and led her over to the barracks’ door. “Let’s go, Elle.”

“Good call, Max,” Zack said once Tinga and Elle were safely down the hall. We all looked towards the door when we heard three sets of footsteps approach. There was a soft knock a moment later. “Come on in.”

“Thanks,” Alec said as he, Biggs, and Sasha entered our barracks. “This going to be an adults-only party?”

“Yeah,” Ben said. He got out of his bunk and walked over to the others to exchange handshakes with them. “The kids aren’t stopping by.”

“Ben, for crying out loud,” Syl complained. “Some of us do not want to see you wearing only your boxers.”

“Why not?” Ben said. He grinned wolfishly and I shook my head. “Would you prefer me in my birthday suit?” He reached for the waistband of his boxers and I was out of my bunk and yanking his hand away a moment later.

“Grow up,” I said.

“Hey, it’s not like I’m the only guy here who’s sleeping without a t-shirt on tonight,” Ben pointed out. Before I could really react, he shoved me towards Zack’s bunk. I managed not to crash into it, but stumbled onto Zack instead.

“Thanks a lot, Ben,” I said. I pulled myself up into a sitting position. “I can never make up my mind whether you’re twenty-one or two, but I think you just helped make the decision for me. I really do owe you one.”

Jondy snickered. “I think you might owe him for more than that, Max.”

I put my hands on my hips. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, baby sister, you’re sitting right on Zack’s lap,” Brin said. “You know, one of the guys that are also sleeping in only their boxers.”

I turned to look at Zack, who was starting to look slightly flushed and uncomfortable. I let my eyes drift downwards. Yeah, he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Good thing, too. He’s got such a nice, well-defined… I suddenly jumped off of Zack’s lap and tried to ignore the others while they laughed. What the hell just happened? I’d never thought of Zack like that before…at least not that I was aware of.

“Should we be leaving the two of you alone?” Krit teased.

“Shut up,” I said. My youngest brother could be such an idiot sometimes. I smiled. Good thing that I usually had ammunition to throw right back at him. “Maybe I should be asking you that question, Krit. Remember a few weeks ago when we were running that training mission in the woods and you slipped on that icy log and fell right on top of Syl and the two of you didn’t make any moves to get off of each other for about thirty seconds?” That got whistles and catcalls from everybody else except for Zack. Krit and Syl both blushed.

“That was completely different, Max,” Krit insisted. “We took our time getting back up because we’d both had the wind knocked out of us when I fell on top of her.”

“Guard coming back,” Zack warned us. I raced back into my bunk. Biggs raced into the guys’ bathroom. Rena, Sasha, Ben, and Alec exchanged a quick look and a grin before Rena got out of her bunk and raced into the other bathroom. Ben joined Biggs in the guys’ bathroom and then Alec and Sasha kicked off their boots and got into their twins’ bunks just in time. The guard looked into our barracks. I held my breath out of reflex when the door opened and he poked his head inside.

“I thought I heard noise,” he said suspiciously.

“Must have been one of the other units in the block,” Alec said. He was holding the book that Ben had on top of his dresser. “It sounded like X5 Unit 1 across the hall.”

“And what are you doing up, 493?” the guard said. “I thought that you sleep at night.”

“I was having trouble getting to sleep so I thought that I’d catch up on my reading,” Alec said. He held up the book. “Just some light reading on the history of light firearms.”

“I see,” the guard said skeptically. “Was he making any noise, 452?”

“Quiet as a mouse,” I said.

The guard raised an eyebrow and looked over at Jondy. “210?”

“Not a peep from him or anybody else, sir,” she assured him.

“Fine,” the guard said. The disappointed dickhead closed the door and walked away.

“I hate the ones that are just looking for an excuse to get somebody into trouble,” Kenny said.

“Tell me about it,” Sasha said as she climbed out of Rena’s bunk. Alec also got out of Ben’s bunk and a moment later, Ben, Biggs, and Rena came out of the bathrooms. “Hey, where are Tinga and Elle?”

“I’m right here and I just got back from taking Elle to isolation because she was starting to go into heat,” Tinga replied as she entered the barracks. “Hey, Alec, Sasha.” She smiled. “Hey, Biggs.”

“Hey, Tinga,” Biggs said. He grinned at her and Jondy and I exchanged a knowing look. Boy, did he have it bad for our oldest sister. “Great to see you again.”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “You only just saw her this afternoon at our Escape and Evade debriefing and then earlier tonight in the cafeteria at dinner, numbnuts.”

“I know,” Biggs said. He looked slightly flustered and Jondy, Rena, and I had to work really hard to stifle our giggles. “Oh, that reminds me. I ran into the kid—I mean 941—on our way back to the guest barracks from our last activity and he told me that he, 111, Becky, and Kevin got called into Lydecker’s office during their last class. They’ve made the decision to transfer him and 111 to Becky’s unit as well. They’ve even made 941 Becky’s new 2IC.”

“Way to go,” Jace said. “I’m happy that they’re keeping them all together. Is 941 okay with being bumped down to a second-in-command?”

“Yeah, he’s cool with it,” Biggs said. “He knows how good Becky is and he says there’s no honor lost in being under her command.” He grinned again. “Personally, I think the kid’s got a major crush on her.”

“That’s sweet,” Gale said.

“He better not try anything,” Zack growled.

“Don’t mind him,” I said. “He’s just protective over all of us, myself and Becky in particular.”

“No offense taken or harm done,” Biggs said. “You don’t have to worry about 941 hurting Becky or anything along those lines. For somebody his age, the kid’s about as much of a class act as you can get.”

“Not to mention smart,” Alec added. “He knows how outnumbered he’ll be if he crosses the line.” He stretched. “Speaking of crossing the line, I’d like to apologize for 908’s comments after escape and evade. Now that I feel like I have to apologize for. That was nasty even for 908.”

I shook my head. “It’s cool. I know that the bitch has got more than one screw loose up there.”

“To say the least,” Sasha said. “I don’t know why exactly she seems to want to tear everybody down.”

Rena shrugged. “Maybe she subconsciously wants them to inflict grievous bodily harm on her.” She grinned wickedly and I shifted uneasily. I knew that look too well. “Speaking of bodies, Max, you seemed to be getting quite an eyeful of Zack’s upper body when you fell onto his lap. Like what you saw there, little sister?”

“Grow up, Rena,” I said.

“Lay off of her, Rena,” Ben agreed. I gave him a grateful look and he smiled back at me before he returned his attention to Rena. “If you want to talk about bodies and ogling, I must say that I could have sworn that you were admiring the view when I greeted our visitors from Seattle just a few minutes ago.” He shrugged. “Not that I can blame you. God knows how many hours I put in working out so I must have something to show for it.”

“Yeah,” Alec agreed. “You want it in stereo?” He started to reach for his t-shirt before Sasha bailed her twin out by smacking Ben’s twin across the back of his head. I laughed. I liked that girl.

“No thank you,” Sasha said. “I have no interest in seeing your body.”

“Whose body would you rather see?” Alec said. He followed the direction that Sasha’s eyes had drifted in. “Oh, Kenny’s?”

“None of your business,” Sasha said. I couldn’t help raising an eyebrow skeptically and looking over at Alec, who gave me a knowing look. Yeah, he definitely knows Sasha as well as we know Rena and those two are definitely alike.

“I guess,” Alec said. “Besides, I can see right through you like you were made of Saran Wrap anyway.” Sasha rolled her eyes, but she kept quiet.

“That’s weird,” Rena said. “I never thought of Kenny like that.”

“Hey!” Sasha said. “We have pretty much exactly the same DNA. I thought that you were supposed to be on my side by default.”

“Sorry,” Rena said.

“You guys need to be quiet,” Zack reminded them. “That guard’s going to have a field day if he comes back and sees that it was us after all that was making the noise before.”

“Is he always this bad?” Sasha asked.

“Not always, but usually,” Jondy said. She turned to me and smiled innocently. “Max here is one of the few but usually the only one that can definitely charm big brother into loosening up on occasion.”

“Zack listens to reason,” I said, shrugging.

“In that case I guess Zack must love reason,” Jondy said under her breath, barely loud enough for me to be able to catch her. I turned to glare at her and she just smiled at me again. “Why the mean look, Maxie?”

“Why are you one of my best friends?” I said.

“What did you say to her?” Reese asked eagerly.

“Are you desperate to cause trouble tonight?” Tinga said to Reese. She rolled her eyes. “My goodness, you’re not normally even this bad.”

Reese grinned and pointed his thumb in Alec and Biggs’ direction. “Sorry, big sis. They’re a bad influence on me.”

“Glad to be of service,” Alec said cheerfully. That got most of the guys laughing. “Let me know if you need me for anything else.”

“Isn’t that nice of him to volunteer for thing like that?” Biggs said. He grinned. “When you put it that way, how about you take over for me every time I’m supposed to lead an exercise with the little X8s?” We all laughed, even Zack smiled at that one, but Biggs’ grin grew when he saw and heard that Tinga was among the ones that thought what he said was funny. Ooooh, I knew that he liked her!

“No, thank you,” Alec said. “Would you and Tinga like some alone time?” Biggs just stared at Alec with his jaw practically scraping the floor of the barracks. He tried to tell that smartass something, if it were me it’d be where to stick it, but he couldn’t say anything.

“Even if that were the case, I am perfectly capable of handling myself,” Tinga quickly said to Zack. She knows Zack almost as well as I do.

Sasha yawned. “I’m starting to feel wiped. What time is it? I left my watch back in the guest barracks.”

“2325,” Jack replied.

“We should be getting back to the guest barracks, then. Lydecker will be by the guest barracks by 0500 to collect us and escort us over to our transport back to Seattle and we should be up and getting ready by 0430,” Alec said. He suddenly grew quiet and the rest of us did as well as it suddenly hit us that they really would be leaving to go back to Seattle.

“Well,” Rena said. She sounded like she was fighting off tears. “I guess this means that we should say our good-byes now.” She got up off of her bunk again and walked over to Sasha and gave her a hug. I bit my lip when I could hear both of them trying not to cry. Damn Manticore.

“Bro,” Ben said quietly. He and Alec exchanged a handshake and a quick hug. Neither of them looked like they were also fighting back the waterworks.

“Good-bye, you guys,” Biggs said. His looked over at Tinga and I felt so bad, especially when I saw the tears that started to appear in both of their eyes, which they quickly wiped away. Poor Sasha, she couldn’t even trust herself to get the words out when she looked at Kenny. Alec and Biggs exchanged handshakes with Zack and the rest of the guys and then the three of them left. Rena and Ben quietly went back to their bunks and lay back down. I watched and listened as almost all of us drifted off to sleep before I lay down and turned to face Jondy once again.

“That sucks,” Jondy said. “They really were starting to feel like they were part of our family.”

“I know,” I said. “Tell me about it.”