Disclaimer: Garabaldi, Marcus, Ivanona, Dr. Franklin, and Zach are not mine, they belong to the creators of Babylon 5 - as do all the places, the alien races, and anyone and everything except Alex. Alex is my creation.
Author's Note: This is an AU fic, and does not pay strict attention to the changes in command staff on the station. And it is definately not a fic in which Marcus manages to have killed himself with the bloody machine - though he does save Ivanova, since they're both going to end up having to deal with Alex later.... and because I could never really bring myself to actually kill either of them.
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Garabaldi rubbed the sleep from his eyes, pulling on his robe as he headed for the door. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." He growled, calling for lights before opening the door. He stared a moment at the girl who stood there, a grey-suited figure that bore the insignia of child services standing at a discreet distance behind her. What had he done, with who, and why did his past have to choose now to come back to haunt him? Things were already interesting enough as it was.
"Can I help you?"
The girl had a sullen expression on her face as she shot a glare over her shoulder at the woman behind her. "My name's Alex Garabaldi. Least, that's the name mum told me was my dad's name. They," she jerked her head at the woman, "brought me here."
He blinked, then heaved a sigh. "You both might as well come in. Have a seat while I get into something a little more presentable, and I'll get you two coffee?"
"That will be fine, Mr. Garabaldi." The woman spoke, a smile gracing her face briefly. "Alex." She promted the girl, nudging her elbow, and the girl shrugged, shuffling in, dropping a shabby pack at the end of the couch. "I am sorry to interrupt your sleep, Mr. Garabaldi, but I'm afraid that we weren't able to get a message ahead of us announcing our arrival."
"Yeah. Whatever." He left them to make themselves comfortable before going back into his bedroom, and changing into his uniform. He rather doubted he'd get anymore sleep that night. "Why didn't you call when you found her?"
"Because, Mr. Garabaldi, she wasn't put into our custody until she arrived here, to be honest." The woman was sitting on one end of the couch, and Alex was slumped at the other, her eyes darting around to take in every detail of the apartment. "She was, I'm afraid, in the custody of law enforcement. She was apparently a chronic problem for the colony planet she was on at the time, and they did not communicate with us what they intended to do with her. So, you see, we didn't have the opportunity to speak with you prior to this."
Garabaldi looked over at the girl at the end of the couch a moment before replying. "I see. And you made sure she was who she claimed to be before you brought her here?" He went into the kitchen area to prepare coffee, turning so he could continue the conversation.
"Actually, Mr. Garabaldi, we require your consent as well as hers to see if there is a genetic match." The woman met his eyes squarely, her expression well controlled. "Also, she is currently facing the possibility that should you not be her father, as her mother has told her, of being placed in a juvenile detention center until she reaches her eighteenth birthday. We'd much rather see her in the care of a parent who can teach her better habits than those she has learned growing up." She smiled again, as he returned to the main room with a carafe of coffee and three mugs, accepting one of them. "Unadulterated, please."
Alex shook her head when he offered it to her. "It ain't what I drink in the mornin. It smells nasty." Her voice was quiet and a bit gruff, her expression wary and untrusting.
Garabaldi shrugged, before pouring himself a mug, and sitting on the chair. "How old are you?" He addressed Alex direstly, hoping the girl would open up a bit, but not really expecting it.
"Fifteen." She kept her answer brief, watching him from glittering eyes that were eerily like the ones that looked back at him from the mirror.
"Who's your mom?"
"She ain't nobody nomore." She shrugged.
He raised a questioning eyebrow, and she simply met his gaze with hers, stubbornly silent.
"Her mother, as best we know, was Diana Hawke, a prostitute and drug addict arrested a few months ago for possession of narcotics." The woman frowned slightly. "She was not living anywhere near where Alex was picked up, except for the fact they were on the same planet."
"Bitch left me. It ain't matter to me none," Alex muttered, her brows drawing together in a frown. "Why the hell should you care?"
The woman's frown nearly echoed Alex's, and Garabaldi spoke before she could. "Because I wanted to know if you might have someplace else to go."
"I gotta a place to go. It just ain't where these goons want me to be." Alex glared at the woman out of the corner of her eye, her expression becoming even more closed than it was earlier, her attitude more stubbornly set against doing what was asked of her.
Garabaldi grimaced, raising an eyebrow at the woman from child services. "Need my signiture on a piece of paper, or will a verbal consent do?"
The woman smiled, again. It was almost creepy, her nearly constant smile. "There is paperwork to be filled out, of course, but if you would care to fill it out while the testing is being conducted, I do not see where that will be a problem." She stood. "We will keep Alex in our custody until the tests are complete, of course, Mr. Garabaldi, so if you would rather wait until morning, it shouldn't be a problem."
Garabaldi shook his head. "No, it's all right. Sooner we get the results, the better." He gulped the last of his coffee down, not sure if he hoped Alex was his, or not, though it was rather a slim chance she wasn't. He had a nasty gut feeling he was going to be dealing with a holy terror for the next three years.
~~~ ~~~
Steven looked at Garabaldi in surprise, then over at the sullen teenager who stood with the woman from child services. "Wait a minute. You want a paternity test?" A smile twitched at his lips, that didn't help the scowl on Garabaldi's face.
"Yeah. And the sooner you get this over with, Franklin, the better. I'm giving up on the rest of a good night's sleep, so can we get this over with?" He sounded a bit impatient, and Steven wondered how many cups of coffee he'd had. It sounded like he'd only had one as yet.
"It'll take a bit, and there are consent forms that need filled out..."
"I'll fill them out while you run the tests, Franklin." Garabaldi interrrupted him, impatient.
"And you?" Steven looked over at the teen, who scowled, hunching her shoulders.
"She gots 'em already. Wanna get this over with today, doc?" Her tone was corse, and attitude almost belligerent. Steven raised a mental eyebrow. This was definately a familiar temper, frighteningly like Garabaldi's.
"If you'll sit down over here, miss, this shouldn't take too long. Then you can have the chance to settle in, hmm?" She merely shrugged, her expression falling back into the sullen mask it had been when she entered.
Steven moved quickly, and efficeintly, setting the computer to compare the genetic profiles from each of them while Garabaldi filled out the neccessary paperwork, grumbling under his breath. In the doctor's mind there was little chance the teenager - he looked at the paperwork, Alex was her name - was not Garabaldi's, though she was a curiosity.