What's Next? -- Chapter 5

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.).

“I get to look forward to more negotiations this afternoon,” Max muttered as she worked in the control room the next day. “I feel the same way that Becky does about meetings.” She sighed. “It could be worse. I could be up to the morning sickness stage of the pregnancy already. Now there’s something that’ll liven up negotiations about your future.”

“Oh yeah,” Brin said cheerfully. “If you’re lucky, these negotiations will still be going five weeks from now and then you’ll get your wish.”

“Yeah, it’s all that I’m hoping for right now,” Max said sarcastically. She sighed. “Five more weeks and then it’ll be little to no hope of keeping down my breakfast.”

“If it’s twins, or possibly more than twins, it’ll probably start earlier,” Sasha said. “I started to get morning sickness about five weeks into my pregnancy with Jade and Julia. It was so bad, too. Man, there were mornings when it took every bit of my training to drag my ass away from the toilet and get to whatever work I had to do that day. Thank goodness that Renfro gave the order excusing the breeding program females from their activities in the event of morning sickness otherwise I would have been in solitary half of the time until Manticore burned down.” She laughed. “I even puked all over Alec one time when we were standing in lineup one morning before our morning drills. Under normal circumstances, that would have gotten me at least a week in solitary. When it happened, all it got me was the rest of the morning in the infirmary.” Her grin definitely became evil. “Oh yeah, everything’s worse when you’re having twins. The morning sickness is worse and if you’re as lucky as I was it’ll last most of the day, and just wait until your breasts get tender, holy crap…”

Max smirked. “Wayne said when he checked me out yesterday that it looks like I’m having only one baby.”

Sasha returned the smirk. “I didn’t know I was having twins until I could hear their hearts beating inside me.” Her face softened as she recalled the moment. “Man, that was…”

“Incredible?” Max said softly.

“Yeah,” Sasha said. “It was heartbreaking for me too, because this was still before Manticore burned down. I knew that I was going to be a mom and these were my children and I could never give them up for anything but I knew that I was going to have to give them up when they were born and you have no idea how that felt like.” She grinned. “I’d never been happier than when I cleared the fence the night Manticore became history.”

Max nodded. “I can only imagine.” They got back to their work. “Speaking of kids, are you and Biggs talking about having any together or are you going to put that off until the twins are older?”

“We’re not putting it off,” Sasha said. “At least, not for too much longer. We’re going to wait for my next heat in about a month-and-a-half or so. You know, make what we have as official as it gets for us.”

“If Biggs is like his best friend in bed, it will be worth the wait,” Brin said.

“Neither of them can beat Zack,” Max said proudly.

“No offense, ladies, but if you’re going to discuss…” Dix started to say.

“Sorry, Dix,” Max apologized. “We’ll try to keep it down.”

“Thanks, Max,” he said gratefully.

“I have every confidence in Biggs’ ability to make my heat so good, neither of us will be able to remember much,” Sasha said. “We’ve come close before.”

“Yeah, Alec mentioned it once I think it was around the time that you came to Seattle,” Max said. “Krit had some deep scratches on him because he just managed to get away from Syl and she was in heat and Alec recognized them and he said why he recognized them.”

“Alec wasn’t there when it happened,” Sasha said. “Biggs told me that he told Alec about it later when Alec ran into him as some of the guards were taking Biggs to spend the rest of the day in the brig. It was a good thing that Alec wasn’t there because this was before both Rachel Berrisford and Brin and Alec would have tried to go for me if he’d gotten a whiff and Biggs would have tried to kill him. I was so damn angry at Melanie and Diane for holding me back from Biggs and not just because I can’t stand those two bitches anyway.”

“What a surprise,” a female voice remarked.

Sasha squealed and vaulted over the desk that she was working at and hugged the young woman. “228! It’s about time that you got to Terminal City. You missed some big action here.” She snickered. “Typical of you, isn’t it? You missed the breeding program because of your last mission and you missed Ames White going down. I’m sensing a pattern here.”

“Oh, give it a rest, 121,” 228 said.

“Max, Brin, this is one of my friends from Manticore, 228 or…” Sasha said.

“CeCe,” 228 said. “It’s nice to meet somebody who’s actually friends with 121.”

“Sasha,” Sasha said.

“It wasn’t easy,” Max said. “She wanted to kick my ass in the worst way when we first met, but we’re all cool now.”

“That sums up Sasha,” CeCe teased.

“Very funny,” Sasha said.

“Did you come in by yourself?” Brin asked.

“No, I came in with a friend,” CeCe said. She looked slightly apprehensive.

“What gives with the look, CeCe?” Sasha asked.

“That would be me,” another voice said. Sasha looked up and her eyes widened, her expression somewhere between thrilled and apprehensive and jealous. “Good to see you again, Sasha.”

“It’s great to see you again, 849,” Sasha said. She looked at the baby that 849 was holding. “That’s your baby? Boy or girl?”

“Girl,” 849 said. “Her name is Andrea. My name is Gem.”

Sasha couldn’t help snorting in laughter. “After the London mission, huh?”

“Yeah,” Gem said.

Max looked back-and-forth between Sasha and Gem. “What’s with the soap tension dealio?”

“Gem was my other friend from Manticore pre-toasting,” Sasha said. “She was also Biggs’ breeding partner. He’s the father of little Andrea there.”

“That’s what 511 is going by?” Gem asked.

Brin blinked. “Holy shit. That explains a lot.”

“They paired Biggs with a friend of yours?” Max said. She shook her head. “It makes me wonder if Renfro somehow knew that you and Biggs had something going on between the two of you.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Sasha said.

“Where is Biggs now?” Gem asked.

“He’s over in the gym getting a workout in,” Sasha said. “He’s going to stop by here when he’s done and then we’re picking up my daughters from the nursery and then we’re going to relax in our apartment before I have to go out on the security group that’s going to accompany Max to the negotiations.”

“Negotiations?” CeCe repeated.

“Yeah,” Max said. She grinned. “The president has opened negotiations with us about bringing us into the general public. How cool is that?”

“That’s amazing,” CeCe said.

“It is,” Gem said. She shifted Andrea in her arms.

“How old is she?” Max asked.

“Four months,” Gem said. “I was put into the breeding program relatively late.”

“She’s beautiful,” Sasha admitted. “She looks a lot like her father.”

Gem nodded. “Yeah, she does. Do you want to hold her?”

Sasha bit her lip but nodded. “Yeah, I’ll hold her.” She reached out her arms and Gem carefully handed Andrea over to Sasha, who just stared at the baby for several moments. So, this is Biggs’ daughter. His daughter and not mine…get a grip on yourself, Sasha! Biggs accepted Jade and Julia and biologically, they’re not his daughters! Yeah, he was a little apprehensive when he first met them, but he accepted them and then he grew to love them quickly and he loves the two of them as much as if he was their biological father. If Biggs can do that for your children, you can do that for his child! You know you can. “Hi, Andrea. How are ya?” She gently tickled her with one hand and grinned. “I’m your wicked stepmommy.”

Gem, Max, Brin, and CeCe laughed. “You got the wicked part right,” Max said, snickering.

“That was just hilarious,” Sasha remarked. She handed Andrea back to Gem. “If you want to, you can come back to Biggs’ and my apartment with Andrea. I know that you and Biggs have a lot of things to talk about and the girls should get to know each other.”

“I’d like that, thank you,” Gem said. “Did you hear that, sweetie? You’ve got two playmates just waiting to meet you. You’re going to have so much fun!”

“That was really mature of you, Sasha,” Max said.

“Gem is one of my best friends,” Sasha said. “And Biggs is Andrea’s father. It’s the least I can do.”

“Max is right,” CeCe said. “I don’t know if I could have handled it that well.”

“I couldn’t have a few years ago myself,” Sasha admitted. She smiled. “I guess the babies aren’t the only ones who are growing up.”

TBC