Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 38: Ben (X5-493)

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 frowned as I tightened the screw. I’d gotten randomly assigned to a mechanics class for this particular chunk of time. Nothing like spending a beautiful May afternoon indoors fixing things. Then again, I don’t think that it would have been quite as aggravating if we were working on something cool like cars or motorcycles or even military transportation and equipment. Nope, we got assigned to work on a new model of security camera that came onto the market within the last couple of weeks. I sighed, shook my head, and held out left hand in Rena’s direction. “Would you do me a favor and hand me that wrench?”

“Not a problem,” Rena said. She handed me the wrench that I needed and made a face. “Why did we have to be assigned to this class at this time? I know mechanics, I passed all those classes and tests back in Wyoming years ago with no problem. Okay, it’s not the class itself that I’ve got a vague problem with right now, it’s this stupid security camera that we have to put back together. What moron in the factory in Europe that made the stupid thing decided that he or she was in a sadistic mood and made it such a pain-in-the-ass? Even Zane would be complaining about it by now. I know that we have to know how to take apart and rewire these things at a moment’s notice while blindfolded and having one hand tied behind our backs, but this is ridiculous.” Sometimes you’d think she was the one I’d shared a surrogate mother with, we thought so much alike at times.

“Do you want to try explaining that to him?” I said. I motioned to the trainer who was supervising us and the other X5s in the classroom. The guy had a face that even a mother would have a hard time loving and an even worse attitude. One of the others that was in the class with us had already mouthed off and faster than Max could disarm any of us, the trainer had given the guy a lecture that I’m reasonably sure that they could have heard in China and had sent the X5 to the brig for the rest of the day. I wasn’t even sure that either Alec or I could sweet talk this particular trainer. I should ask Alec later if he’s ever tried. “I’m pretty sure that he gets a perverted thrill sending one or more of us down to the brig.” Rena giggled and I grinned. “I’ll bet you anything that if we do say something about how aggravating putting the camera back together is that not only would he send us down there, but he would try to put one of these things together himself and see that we were right.” I had a hard time laughing when the mental image of the trainer doing exactly that came to me. I sighed and tightened the screw again and grinned triumphantly. “Finally! I think we almost have it.”

“Yeah,” Rena agreed. She grabbed another tool and made an adjustment. “That’s it!” She picked the camera up and carried it over to the computer terminal at our work station. I hooked up some cables between the camera and the computer and Rena typed in some commands before pausing and then giving me a thumbs-up. “All diagnostics came up good.” I nodded and grinned mischievously but before I could do what I had planned on doing, the trainer approached us and Rena and I quickly straightened to attention.

“Well?” he said impatiently. He stepped around us to get a look at the monitor and raised an eyebrow. “It looks like the two of you are the first pair to complete the assignment. Well done.”

Rena glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “That couldn’t have sounded more dragged out of him even if Renfro had been interrogating him,” she muttered under her breath. We stayed at attention even when the trainer went to the door to talk to the guards that had just arrived. After leaving the room for a few minutes, the guy returned and motioned to Rena and me. We gave each other puzzled looks. We had no idea what the heck was going on since the trainer had spoken to the guards out of our hearing range.

“You’re needed at the brig on guard duty until dinner,” he said. “You’ll be excused from your planned activities.” Rena and I saluted him and headed out of the classroom and down to the brig. When we got there, we checked in with the soldier in charge and he led us over to a large cell. I looked inside and managed to keep the surprise off of my face when I saw that Krit, Zane, and Parker occupied it and all three of them looked like they’d had the crap beaten out of them. As soon as the soldier left us to keep an eye on our brothers, I leaned against the wall and grinned. You can damn well bet that I’m gonna have some fun with this assignment. Who wouldn’t?

“My, my, my,” I drawled. “Look what the cat dragged in. What did you guys do?”

Zane glared at me with his right eye. His left eye was in the process of swelling shut. “Nothing and for the love of Lydecker, stop enjoying this so much.”

“Oh, come on,” Rena said. “Either you’re probably going to tell us anyway at some point or we’re going to find out what had happened from somebody else.” She smiled sweetly. “Who do you think we would rather find out the situation from, hmmm?”

“Oh, fine,” Krit snapped irritably. “It was a heat fight.”

“It must have been a pretty good one,” I remarked. “How bad was it? Helo Three? Maybe Helo Two?” Helo was the Manticore code for a heat fight or situation. The lower the number, the crazier the fight.

Parker sighed. “Helo One.”

“You’re shitting me,” Rena said. Her jaw, along with mine, had hit the floor. “How the hell could it have gotten up to that level?”

“Well, it’s easy when four X5 women are in heat and there are about twelve X5 men around who are being driven nuts,” Zane said dryly. “I guess that you could say that the thirty-eight mixed X-series women that got called over helped get things under control somewhat.”

“Everything must have really been aligned up there if four people went into heat at close to the same time,” I said. “If it was that bad, I’m surprised that you guys are the only ones here in the brig.” I looked around the hallway. “Are you guys the only ones that got tossed in here?”

“We were the only ones that got thrown in here, but we sure as hell weren’t the only ones punished,” Parker said. “Eight of the other guys involved got thrown into solitary because they were even more combative when they were being restrained and some of the girls that had been called in to help tried to restrain them, they hurt them badly enough for them to take at least a couple of hours-long trip to the infirmary. The other guy actually got Psy Ops for two days because he kicked the shit out of a trainer pretty badly.” He blushed a little and I snorted. That was the look Parker got whenever Rena or Max or one of the other girls in the family would kick his ass. “Max, Becky, Jace, Jondy, Gale, and Layla took it upon themselves to keep us from doing something really stupid. That was sweet of them, don’t you think?” He pointed to the stitched up gash on his forehead. “Becky gave me that and Layla stitched it up.”

Zane pointed to his black eye. “One of Max’s special right hooks.”

“I guess she hasn’t lost her touch,” Rena remarked.

“Hey, what about Syl?” I asked. “Why didn’t she…” I trailed off when I noticed how the other three, Krit in particular, got uncomfortable when I’d mentioned Syl’s name. This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I looked my youngest brother in the eye. “Syl was one of the ones in heat…and you were the one that she jumped.”

“I wish that was all,” Krit said, which caused the rest of us to exchange worried looks. Something was really up here. I don’t think that I’ve ever heard Krit sound that miserable before.

“Krit, tell us what happened,” Rena suggested gently.

“Sure, might as well,” Krit said. He took a deep breath. “I know how you and the others have been cracking on me and Syl about us having real feelings for each other for years now and I came to the conclusion that you guys were right and I really did have feelings for her. I love her, I really do. Anyway, when we got paired up in this exercise, I thought ‘here’s the perfect time to tell her how I feel’ and that’s exactly what I did. She looked surprised as hell at first and then she said that she loved me too and then we kissed. It was almost too good to be true. I’d never reacted like that when I’d kissed a woman before. I probably should have known then that she was going into heat, but I just thought that it was because of how I felt about her and maybe it was, at least in part. Then she pulled me in for another kiss and that’s when I realized that she was in heat and I honestly didn’t give a shit about that or anything at that point and then I felt somebody yank me away from her and that’s when things started to get crazy, at least that I was aware of.” He sighed dejectedly. “The worst part about this whole thing is not that I got in trouble for letting Syl try to jump me because she was in heat or getting in trouble for trying to fight a couple of other guys for her, but I have no idea if what she said to me was how she really felt or just her hormones talking. What am I going to do, you guys?”

“Just do what you can,” I said. “Take a mulligan on this one, baby brother. Wait until you get out of here and until Syl gets out of isolation and then try again to find a good time to tell her about how you feel. It’s going to work out for you, Krit. I promise.”

Krit nodded and seemed to get himself back under control. “You’re right, Ben. Thanks.”

“Why don’t you do something special?” Rena suggested.

Parker groaned. “The last time that you used that word in some sort of reference to Syl, you ended up with kitchen duty for two weeks and I still have no idea how you managed to sneak those rubber snakes into our old place in Wyoming when you got back from that mission. Those things were big enough for even those guards to catch when they made a vague attempt at checking us for contraband.”

“It’s a good thing that those guys were stupid as hell, wasn’t it?” Rena retorted. She stuck her tongue out at Zane. “I wasn’t suggesting anything like that, you moron. I was thinking along the lines of something romantic. Walking underneath the stars, that kind of thing.”

“Technically, we do that every night,” Zane quipped. “Even when we’re indoors.” Rena looked around carefully before she walked up to the cell, reached between the bars, grabbed Zane, and yanked him forward until his face crashed against the bars somewhat painfully. “That was not necessary, Rena.” He rubbed his forehead.

“I think it was,” Krit said, snickering. He smiled. “That is a good idea, Rena. I think that I can come up with something.”

“Good luck,” I said.

“Thanks,” Krit said.

“Anytime,” I replied. I wished like hell that it would work out for him.