What's Next? -- Chapter 28

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

Notes:  Spoiler-ish stuff for “Art Attack.”

A few days later...

“Okay, I think that we should be wrapping things up here,” Rena said, laughing. “I would like to thank all of you—“

“Yeah, all ten of us including yourself and the bride-to-be,” Max teased.

Rena stuck her tongue out at her. “—for coming out to celebrate Sasha’s final day as what ordinaries would define to be a free woman. For those of you that can’t stick around to help with clean up, I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow.”

Becky stood up. “I’m sorry that I can’t help out, but I have a million papers to correct already. Trust me, my students are not the only ones who didn’t want to have homework assigned to them on the first day of class. It’s a good thing that I only need about a fourth of the sleep that a normal person does because I’m starting to think that you’d need to sleep like Max, Jondy, or Karen would to be able to keep up with grading assignments.”

“It’s okay, go back to your place and have fun with your paperwork,” Max teased.

“Maybe I’ll pop in something funny to watch on my DVD player while I’m grading,” Becky said. She glanced quickly at Max, her eyes slightly apprehensive. “Logan’s funeral usually gets a good laugh out of me.”

“I still can’t believe that you not only kept the recording Maggie made of the funeral, allegedly for security purposes, but that you made copies of it for Zack, Alec, and your sibs,” Max said. She shook her head. “How old are you, Becky, five?”

“I know how iffy you feel on the subject occasionally, but even you have to admit that when you look past the fucker that was being put six feet under, the whole thing was hysterical,” Becky said. “You even said so yourself when Maggie played the recording for us when she got back from the funeral! What were your exact words, Max, was it ‘I can’t believe how the old hag is bawling after how I saw her at her kid’s wedding reception?’”

Max pretended to glare at Becky, though her eyes were sparking with humor and the corner of her mouth twitched upward. “Did you say that you had to grade homework?”

“I’ll see you guys later,” Becky said. She left.

“Sometimes I can’t believe that’s the same girl that I use to see around Manticore way back when,” Jace said. “The X5 command team in Gillette used to have a running joke bet to see what would happen first: Becky cracking something close to a smile around anybody other than her unit or Lydecker showing up one day in a skirt. She was so cold and serious so much of the time.”

“I wish Brandi had changed,” Sasha grumbled. “I had the distinct pleasure of running into her and her two sidekicks in the lobby yesterday. Same attitude, same lack of brains, and on my part, the same urge to beat the living shit out of her. If I wasn’t four-and-a-half months pregnant and outnumbered three-to-one, I definitely would have reminded her which of the two of us was the better at hand-to-hand combat.”

“I remember seeing her once at Manticore after the facilities had been consolidated after the DNA lab had been blown,” Brin recalled. “I think it was the day that Alec had gotten back from that quickie solo and had been assigned to me in the program and Brandi was passing me in the hall that afternoon and she had gotten bumped into by accident by an X8 that was passing by in the hallway and the little speed demon was already halfway down the hall by the time that she turned around and she looked like she was about to explode but instead she just hit me with the mission folder that she had been holding, screamed at me to go fuck myself, and then went off down the hall.”

“Ah, that must have been right after Renfro told her that she couldn’t participate in that breeding program because she was a fucking psycho,” Sasha said. “Oh, she was bad to deal with that day. It was one of the very few if not only days that I was grateful for Diane and Melanie’s presence because I hate to think what would have happened if they weren’t there to calm Brandi down.”

“I shudder to think of what it would have been like if she had been in the program and had gotten knocked up,” Gem said as she picked up some used paper plates and shoved them into a trash bag. “I’m a hell of a lot more stable mentally than her and there were times when I was pregnant with Andrea when I felt like my hormones were making me completely crazy.”

“Tell me about it,” Sasha sympathized. “It hasn’t really gotten to that point yet with me this time around, but when I was pregnant with the twins there were times that I didn’t know what had happened with the real me.” She laughed a little. “But other than that, once I got past that rough first trimester, I so loved being pregnant then and I’m loving it now.” She shrugged. “There were times where I felt like physically my body wasn’t really mine, but other than that I absolutely loved the last five or six months.”

“I feel that way sometimes now,” Max agreed. She jumped a little, laughed, and shook her head. “Sorry about that. The baby just kicked.”

“Ooooh! Let me feel,” Jondy said. She dropped the balloons that she had been about to throw away and ran over to Max and put a hand on her abdomen. “Wow! That kid’s really kicking your ass, huh?”

“He or she kicks all of the time,” Max said. “It makes me shudder to think of the abuse that Sasha must have gone through with Jade and Julia.”

“Do you know if you’re having a boy or girl?” CeCe asked.

Max shook her head. “No. Zack and I both want to be surprise.” She glanced at Jondy. “I’ve got a feeling that Wayne knows what the sex of the baby is because lately when I have an ultrasound at my checkup, he looks at the screen and then back at us and then he gives us that really irritating look and laughs before he gets back down to business. I almost punched him at the last appointment.”

“If it makes you feel better if he knows what the baby is, he hasn’t told me,” Jondy offered. “Hey Sasha, do you know?”

“Nope,” Sasha said. “Biggs and I are going back-and-forth on that particular issue. I want to be surprised and he wants to know what it is. I think he really wants this baby to be a boy.” She grinned. “So do I, but I want to wait until I give birth before I find out. Who knows, I might change my mind between now and my due date.”

“More power to Biggs if he does get you to change your mind,” CeCe teased. “It usually takes a small miracle or explosion to get you to change your opinion when you’re set on something.” She grinned wickedly. “Maybe if he’s really nice to you on your wedding night honeymoon, he’ll bring you around.” She, Jondy, Rena, and Syl made catcalls and Max, Jace, Brin, and Gem laughed.

Sasha also grinned. “Well, we’ll see. I’ll let you know when I get back from my honeymoon if Biggs managed to win that particular argument. As for the other details, none of you are going to get a single one of them.”

“Oh, come on, sis,” Rena said. “You won’t even tell me?”

“I especially won’t tell you,” Sasha said. “You want to have a hot honeymoon, wait until Zane proposes to you and the two of you get hitched.”

“Has Zane popped the question yet?” Syl asked.

Rena shook her head. “No. I mean, we’ve only been dating for six or seven months or so.” She grinned giddily. “I sure hope he does sometime, though!”

“For your sake, I hope that he does to,” Max said. “I’ve got a feeling that he will.” She turned towards the living room window. “That’s Zack’s car and my cue to get my butt out of here. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Ten a.m. sharp, Max,” Sasha reminded her.

“Relax, I won’t be late,” Max assured her. She waved to the others and left the apartment and a minute later the building and got into the car. “Hey, baby.” She leaned over and kissed Zack. “How was the bachelor party?”

“Surprisingly, Alec didn’t make it too wild,” Zack said. “I was almost expecting something extreme but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been considering that most of us were either underage, attached, or both.” He pulled away from the curb and started to head towards their own building. “How was Sasha’s bachelorette party?”

“It was fun,” Max said. “Rena did a good job planning it. I had a great time.” She looked out the window and sighed. “I’m getting tired. I hate getting tired this easily. I know that it’s going to be more than worth it, but…” She shrugged. “I can deal.”

As soon as Zack reached their building a few minutes, they went straight to their apartment and sat down on their living room couch. Zack put his arm around Max and pulled her close to him. “Big day tomorrow,” he said.

“The wedding should be nice,” Max said. She grinned. “The wedding reception is going to be insane. T.C. in that garage, every single transgenic who can make it invited…it’s going to be a hell of a party. It’ll be fun.” She laughed. “I’m glad that I can’t drink any alcohol because it’s going to be fun just watching the Three Musketeers get hammered.”

Zack raised an eyebrow. “Fun for you, yes, but you do know who will be the one to drag them someplace where they can pass out or vomit in relative privacy?”

“I know,” Max teased. She leaned in and kissed him sweetly. Zack responded to the kiss, finally pulling away from her a little minutes later.

“Marry me?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” Max breathed. They kissed again.

TBC