What's Next? -- Chapter 19b

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, 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.).

Earlier that night...

Caroline walked down the street, smiling to herself.  It's a great night out.  You can really see the stars and it's not too cold.  I'm fine with only this light jacket.  It's perfect.  She whistled cheerfully to herself until she spotted a boy about Becky's age just up the sidewalk from her, looking a little bit annoyed.  Do I know him from somewhere?  "Excuse me, do I know you?"

He smiled.  "You're Co--Becky's mom, right?  I'm Wes."

"Wes...oh yes, one of her boyfriend's brothers," Caroline recalled.  "Jeff told me about you.  I don't think that I've actually met you before."

"No, I think the closest that we've actually come to meeting each other was back on the day that we were officially legal and Jeff and I and the rest of our family that's in Seattle walked out of Terminal City that afternoon," Wes agreed.

"Well, it's nice to properly meet you," Caroline said.

"Same here," Wes agreed.

"Why did you look so annoyed before?" Caroline asked.

Wes shrugged.  "I'd gotten off the phone with a girl that I was supposed to go out on a date with tonight.  She was going to meet me here but she chickened out on me and called me to call off our date."

"Was she a transgenic or a regular human?" Caroline wondered.

"Ordinary," Wes said.  "I met her at my job.  She's really cute and she was really funny, too.  I asked her out and she said yes and I told her after I'd asked her out that I was a transgenic.  She got kind of nervous after I told her but she didn't say anything then."  He looked crestfallen and Caroline felt bad for him.

"It's okay," Caroline said.  "Don't worry about it.  You're young and you've got plenty of time.  You can't be any older than Becky or Jeff."

"Yeah, I won't turn nineteen until June," Wes said.  "I know, but..."

"...it's the fact that she rejected you because you're a transgenic," Caroline finished.  "That's what you think, right?"

"All of the evidence points towards that conclusion," Wes agreed.  "I don't know.  I guess I hoped that since we were all declared free and legal that everything would be absolutely perfect and we'd have these normal lives without any problems.  We've been starting our own businesses, getting jobs, things do seem to be going our way in so many ways.  But every now and then there's a reminder that this still isn't a perfect world and that some ordinaries still don't trust us and are scared of us."

"That was profound," Caroline said.

Wes thought about it.  "Yeah, it was."

"As far as problems with the other humans go, that's actually pretty minor," Caroline said.

"I know," Wes agreed.  "I'm not trying to sound like a whiny kid.  Honest.  I've seen some actual nasty problems go down between ordinaries like you and transgenics like me."  He shook his head.  "I remember walking to my job and passing through South Market and seeing one of the anomalies being harassed by a group of people as it was trying to buy something.  This poor guy is just trying to go about his business and he can't even go two feet without some idiot with half a brain calling him by some really nasty names.  It's pretty disheartening."

"Cheer up," Caroline said.  "Things are going very well considering what could have happened.  Things will die down even more and people will get used to you guys.  It'll be fine."

"You're right," Wes said.  He smiled.  "Maybe it's just as well that the girl canceled our date at the last minute.  How good could she have been if she couldn't accept me for who I am?"

"Exactly," Caroline said.

Wes grinned.  "Besides, I've always thought that Becky's sister Karen was really cute."

Caroline couldn't help laughing.  "There you go.  Why don't you ask her out?"

"I might," Wes said.  "I might stop in on her later tonight.  She's got shark DNA so she barely gets any sleep.  I figure I've got close to a 99% chance of not waking her up if I pop in on her late."

"Do you sleep at all?" Caroline asked.

"Oh yeah, I do," Wes said.  "My sleeping habits are weird.  I sleep four hours in a night, but I only sleep every other day.  I slept last night so I'm good for tonight."

"That must be nice not to need as much sleep as us ordinary people," Caroline said.

"It has it's upside and it's downside," Wes said.  He grinned wickedly.  "Only sleeping every other night sure came in handy when I wanted to pull a prank on Jeff back at Manticore when he was sleeping.  I'm not quite as strong or as fast as he is so it was the only time that I could get away with it."  He looked a little sheepish.  "Well, at least until he found out that I was the one who did it."

Caroline raised an eyebrow.  "You pulled a prank on your brother?  He's such a nice guy."

"I had to live with him from when I turned two until Manticore burned down right after my seventeenth birthday," Wes said.  "Jeff is a great guy and I do consider him to be my older brother but he was also my commanding officer and you know how that goes."

"I do," Caroline said.  "On both counts.  No matter how much you might love or like them..."

"He got me back pretty good whenever I pranked him," Wes said.  He grinned again.  "Not that it stopped me from pranking him occasionally, but--"  He stopped abruptly and started to look around, scanning the area that they were in.

Caroline grew concerned.  "What is it?" she whispered.

Wes bit his lip.  "We're surrounded.  I'm hearing people moving into position around us.  It can't be Familiars, they're long gone now, but it sounds like so--get behind me!" He shoved Caroline out of the way and turned around and kicked a soldier that had rushed at him to the ground.  More soldiers moved in and Wes tried to fight them off.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tall man take a Taser and nail Caroline with it.  He immediately turned to move towards the man but he was nailed with another Taser from somebody else.  He tried to fight against it, but the person held on to the Taser and Wes collapsed.  He felt himself losing consciousness and struggled to stay awake.  He looked up, his eyelids fluttering, and saw a masked man holding the Taser that was still firing at Wes.

I know those eyes, he thought as he lost consciousness.

TBC