Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 43: Jack (X5-417)

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.).

Silence was a pretty good word to use to describe us all day. Ever since Max, Jondy, and Rena woke us up a few hours before we were supposed to be up to tell us why Ben—and Alec as well as it had turned out—had been taken away, nobody had really said anything. What could we say? Alec hadn’t really failed his mission. I knew him well enough to agree with Jondy’s point-of-view of what had and what could have happened. What did Ben do other than be genetically identical to Alec? This was absolutely ridiculous. The only good thing that I could say was that Mia would be bailing them out as much as she could.

Max and I walked into our Advanced Weaponry class. Last class before dinner and then only one more after it, thank goodness. I couldn’t wait to get back to my cell and try to mentally digest all the crap that’s gone down. I glanced over at Max as we took our seats and she gave me a weak smile. She was as happy about the situation as the rest of our family was. “Hang in there, Maxie.”

“Will do,” Max said. We sat there patiently until the trainer came in and gave us our assignments for the class. Max and I took out a couple of textbooks from the bookcase near the back of the room and sat back down in our seats. “Nothing says fun like reading about stuff that we already know about.”

“No offense,” I said. “But even your sarcasm is falling flat today.”

“None taken,” Max said. She sighed dejectedly as she turned the page of her book. “I’m trying to keep my mind off of what the guys are probably going through as we speak, even with what interference Mia can run. Ugh.” She shook her head. “This crap is giving me the mother of all migraines.”

“Well, then, you’re not exactly in the right class. You would be better off in field med. Maybe you should even go to the infirmary to get something for that migraine of yours. Then again, since you’re so smart, you should be able to figure out what to do about it.” You were the one who wanted a distraction, Max. She and I turned our heads to see 591, the asshole from Syracuse, smirking at her. Ever since that first time that we had field med here, he’s been an annoying bastard, emphasis on both words.

“Look who’s here,” Max said sweetly. “It’s nice to see you again, 591, now can you actually mind your own business? I’ve got a lot on my mind. That tends to happen when one of the soldiers who is under your command is sent to Psy Ops. Besides, I’m not in the mood to kick your ass.” Max paused. “Yet.”

“Really?” 591 said. He snapped his fingers. “Oh, yeah, it would be 493 that you’re talking about. Am I right? I didn’t know that he was under your command, but you’re not exactly the warm hug-and-share kind of person, 452. That’s got to suck for him. Ouch.” I practically saw the steam coming out of Max’s ears. Not good.

“Let’s settle down here,” I suggested. As much as I wanted to see Maxie beat the hell out of 591 or as much as I wanted the honor for myself, we were still in class and I didn’t want at least Max or I to get into major trouble. “We need to be focusing on our assignments right now, not on antagonizing each other.”

“Good call, 417,” Max said. She gave 591 one more glare for good measure before she turned back to her book. “What do you think possesses him to be such a moron?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll let you know if I ever get the answer,” I replied. I opened my own text back up and started to read again. I actually managed to focus on my assigned reading and once that had been completed, I returned the book to the shelf and went to one of the supply cabinets to retrieve some equipment and I set the box down on the desk and began to take the rifle parts out and started to assemble them. I heard a curse behind me and I stifled my grin. Guess you’re not as big of a hotshot as you claim that you are, 591, aren’t you?

“Number one is done,” Max said with satisfaction about a minute later. I looked over and saw that she had indeed finished putting her first rifle together. I looked down at my half-completed firearm. How does she do that? She saw the look on my face and smiled. “Chill, Jack. I think only one or two other people finished their first rifle out of the box.”

“True,” I conceded. I continued to work on mine. “The trigger assembly on this new model is so damn complicated that I’m surprised that an ordinary could even put it together, much less have designed it.” I snapped the final part into place and sighted with the gun. “Perfect.” I set the assault rifle down on the ground against the desk and I reached into the box to gather the parts for the next one. “I’m willing to bet that they’re using us like an assembly line for these things.”

Max laughed. “That wouldn’t surprise me either. Heck, it’s a different way for us to be used. Gotta give them points for creativity even if it’s still scummy.”

“I can’t wait to find out what they’re going to come up with next,” I deadpanned. That got another laugh from Max and I smiled as I continued to put the gun parts together.

“Isn’t that sweet?” 591 said sarcastically. “The little runt is making his C.O. laugh. It brings a tear to my eye.”

I frowned. Okay, I might be only five-seven, but I’m sure as hell not a runt. I’m almost as sensitive about my relative lack of height as Elle, who’s barely five feet tall, is about hers. This was one of the few ways to get me to lose my cool. I could almost feel Max’s reassuring yet warning look on me as I turned around to face 591. “Actually, she’s only the second-in-command in our unit and squad. She mentioned that fact to you once before, don’t you remember? And I’m not a runt. Especially where brain size is concerned.” I turned back to the unfinished rifle. I think that I made my point nicely, but have you ever noticed how some people don’t like to let things go?

“Ooooh, I’m scared,” 591 said. “Go shut up.” I shut up because it’s in my nature to take the high road in situations like this, but even I couldn’t resist giving the asshole one more glare for good measure before getting back to work. I guess Max decided that she needed more of a distraction from her problems because she decided to take up the slack. I didn’t mind. I was starting to feel my temper slipping and I needed a couple of minutes to get it under control.

“Listen, 591,” Max said. “I’m going to be nice and give you a final warning. You are going to behave like a good little soldier. If you still feel like getting an ass kicking from either 417 or myself, we both have some free time before lights out tonight and we would be glad to do it then. Good-bye, thank you for playing, and don’t let the door whack you in the ass on your way out.” She turned around and got back to work. “Jerk.” She gave me another look. “You do need to be a little less sensitive about your height, Jack.”

“I know that,” I said. “I’m working on it. I didn’t really lose my temper. It was close, but I didn’t really blow it.” Max nodded and we continued to work on putting more of those rifles together for the last fifteen minutes of class. I guess 591 had enough or Max intimidated the heck out of him because he left us alone. We were out of there when the bell rang and we headed to the central courtyard to meet up with Jondy, Syl, Wayne, and Krit. When they met up with us, I carefully looked around before giving Jondy a quick kiss. “Hey, sweetheart.”

“Hey, babe,” she said. She saw Max looking at us and smirked. “Jealous, Maxie?”

“Yeah, I am,” Max said honestly and Jondy’s expression went straight to sympathetic.

“Relax, it won’t be too much longer before the boss is back from France,” Wayne said. We headed back inside of the building and to the cafeteria. Wayne’s expression grew serious. “Has any of you heard anything more about Ben and Alec and how they’re doing?”

“No, but Mia’s going to try to be able to get away from her duties to give us an update on them before lights out,” Max said. We went inside the cafeteria and got onto the food line. “I hate this crap.”

“What is the oh-so-illustrious know-it-all complaining about now?” 908 turned from her place in the food line directly ahead of Max to give her the most condescending smile that mankind has ever known. “Could she be com—“

“Zip it before I zip your mouth shut, 908,” Biggs ordered from where he stood a couple of people ahead of us in line. “If you don’t think that I don’t mean it…”

908 shook her head. “Excuse me for taking some pleasure in something for once in my life, 511. Isn’t that what you and 121 and…494…have been riding me to do for most of the last fifteen years at least? It figures, I’m actually listening to you for once and you go right around and tell me to do the exact opposite. What a damn hypocrite.” She grabbed a tray and then took a plate of something that looked vaguely like some kind of meat and mashed potatoes. “Either get your message straight or don’t bother speaking to me.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to be speaking to you,” Biggs assured her as he took his tray of food and left the line. Instead of sitting down at his usual table with his unit, he sat down at our table. I nodded to myself as I got my own tray and what passed for tonight’s dinner. Smart guy. As soon as I was done, I went over and sat down next to him. Jondy sat next to me a moment later and the rest of the gang that was present had joined us soon after that. “This feels like a damn vacation to me. Any time I can get away from those jerks that I call most of my unit feels like paradise.”

“I guess that they’re taking the news about Alec and Ben a little too well,” Krit observed.

Sasha, who had just sat down next to Rena, snorted. “That’s a nice way of putting it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 908 look so happy. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her look happy at all before this morning for as long as I can remember. It’s scaring the living daylights out of me.” She gave the salad on her tray a vicious poke with her fork. “I wonder how she would feel if 786 or 714 had been taken off to Psy Ops for what appears is going to be a long stay. And on that note, you’d think that 908’s sidekicks would have just the tiniest bit of compassion for Biggs and me since 908’s had at least two stays in Psy Ops that I would define to be long-term, but nooooooooo.”

“I wish I knew what to say,” I said, shrugging. “I guess some people are just beyond comprehension, no matter how hard you try or want to figure them out.”

“Doesn’t stop me from wishing sometimes that I could,” Biggs admitted. “You specialize in strategy and tactics, Jack, don’t you? Would you mind helping a buddy out?”

I couldn’t help smiling a little bit. “I’d love to help you if I could, Biggs. Unfortunately, most of the strategies that I have that has to do with your motley crew include ‘How to Avoid 786,’ ‘Ways to Turn Down 786,’ ‘How Not to Throw Up Around 714,’ ‘How Not to Piss Off 237’…” That got a laugh from Biggs and my brothers. My smile grew. “Seriously, I’ll let you know if I ever come up with anything.”

“Would you mind sharing with me your plans for not throwing up around 714?” Gale asked. “Holy hell, I had to run the assault course this one time a couple of weeks ago and she was in that group and she was flirting with this one guy and she just kept on making the most inane comments and flipping her hair over her shoulder and checking to see if those dumb barrettes of hers were still in place. I thought that I was going to hurl until the trainer finally got there.”

“I guess Elle isn’t the only one who hates Evil Elle with a passion,” Wayne said. “I don’t know who hates who more, Elle and Evil Elle or Alec…” He trailed off and we fell into an uncomfortable silence. “…well, never mind.”

“It’s okay,” Biggs said, though his voice still sounded strained. “I just—“ He stopped talking when he heard a commotion from nearby and he sighed in frustration, though his expression looked somewhat relieved. I guess Max isn’t the only one who needs a distraction right now. Biggs turned around in his seat to look behind him at where his unit was sitting. “237, 665, 013, will the three of you please leave 859 and 295 be? 859 and 295, the reverse applies to you guys as well. Either get handles on yourselves or march your asses over to the brig to cool off.”

“You’re not sitting here this afternoon,” 786 sweetly. “That means that you don’t tell us what to do right now.”

“Yes, it does because I’m still your acting C.O.,” Biggs reminded her. “786, I’m being generous and letting yourself and 908 handle the rest of the unit over lunch. If the two of you can’t keep everybody under control, then 121 and I can easily sit back down with all of you as usual. Which would you rather have? Myself and 121 sitting with you or not?”

“Not,” 786 sneered. “Don’t worry about a thing, 511. I can keep everybody in line and keep them from…” She smirked. “…really misbehaving like a certain commanding officer of ours.” She laughed, turned back to the rest of her unit, and snapped something at the guys that had been misbehaving.

“They’re worse than children,” Max said.

“Oh yeah,” Sasha agreed. “They’re just a bunch of little playground punks. When the good kid goes down, they have to laugh and laugh and laugh about it like they had something to do about it when they only thing that they had anything to do with is acting like a bunch of pu—“ Rena gave Sasha a reassuring pat on the shoulder and she calmed down. “Sorry about that. They’re pissing me off more than normal.”

“Understood,” I said. “Believe me.”

“I’m so damn stressed out, I just want to hit something. Anything,” Rena said. She clenched her fists. “I don’t care what it is. I’m beat the shit out of a punching bag, another X5, a trainer, you name it. I don’t care if I’d get into trouble, I just need to let this steam off so badly.”

“Don’t worry,” Max said. “We all have martial arts next on our schedule. You’ll get your chance to get some of this load off of you.” She smirked. “I’ve got a feeling that the infirmary is going to be busy this lovely evening. What do the rest of you guys think?” We laughed.

“I’m glad that we don’t have that class with you,” Biggs said, smiling for the first time during dinner. He turned as if something had caught the corner of his vision and I turned to see what had gotten his attention and saw another male X5 entering the cafeteria late. This guy didn’t seem to be too bothered by that fact. He actually looked incredibly smug. I looked back at Biggs, whose expression had gone dark again. He made a fist with his right hand and smacked it into his left palm. “Yeah, the infirmary will be busy all right.”

“What gives?” Brin asked. “What’s your beef with that guy? Who is he, anyway?”

“He’s X5-513,” Biggs said. “And according to what Sasha and I were told earlier this afternoon, he was the one who planted the bomb that critically injured Alec’s girlfriend. I might actually have let that slide if he wasn’t acting like he’s the damn king of the world. What a prick.”

“You’re going to want to smack me for saying this, but he hasn’t actually said anything yet,” I said, wincing in anticipation. “Until he does, hating his ass is just a waste of your energy. He isn’t worth it, at least not yet.”

Biggs took a deep breath. “You’ve got a good point. Thanks.”

“No problem,” I told him. I turned back to my food. Yeah, I did have a good point. Now all I have to focus my energy on is getting through the day…and trying not to worry so much about Ben and Alec. I reached underneath the table to squeeze Jondy’s hand. This wasn’t going to be easy, but we’d get through it somehow. Somehow.