Disclaimer: Do not own Dark Angel or any of its characters. I do own the others though.
A/N: I hope you like it.
Time Pasted
The night hung heavy and dark with the promise of rain as a single man leaned against a window frame. Standing there cradled in the dark of the night he felt safe almost like a small child being held by its mother while a storm raged around them. Safe but not. That was how he felt. Alec pushed away from the window frame as a light breeze played with the ends of his jacket. No one saw him as he took the two steps to where he had last seen her. No one also saw how he hovered over the spot, his fists buried deep within the pockets of his leather jacket, his unruly dirty blond hair falling into his cloudy hazel eyes. It had been a long time since then, since it had happened, since she had left him. But to him it seemed like only yesterday and he half expected her to come through the window he had been leaning against before smiling and laughing. She didn't come.
"Why do I do this to myself?" He asked the night as he lifted his keen eyes from the spot. Slowly he looked around but as always the night didn't answer him. It never did.
Alec squared his shoulders and shook his head before closing his eyes against the breeze that now played with his hair. Lifting his face upward eyes still closed Alec missed the slight movement in the shadows behind him. The figure was once more still as Alec lowed his head, silent tears dripping from his chiseled face. "I miss you." He whispered softly to the night. "And I always will." With those last words Alec turned and left the way he had come. The figure in the shadows waited quietly until they heard the tale-tail sounds of a motorcycle revving up and driving away, the sound disturbing the peace and quite of the Seattle night.
Cautiously a slight form stepped out from its hiding place its feet making no sound as it walked out to the edge of the Space Needle. "Oh dad." A low voice whispered to the night. "She knows, you better believe she does." And with that the teenager sat down as close to the edge as she dared. Her long ponytail tickled the back of her bare neck as the wind played with it. Her dark eyes slowly shifted over the city her mother had loved, the city which had in the end taken her life and she shivered. "It's been so long." She whispered as her eyes lost sight of what was before her and instead she saw city bright with the noon sun.
(past)
"Come on Eva." A warm voice coxed as shining brown eyes sparkled with laughter. "The views pretty from here."
"Uh-huh." A little girl said shacking her head from side to side. Max could barely contain her laughter as she reached out a hand to the little girl only to have her press up against the solid wall of the Space Needle still shacking her head.
"Eva." Max wined her eyes still laughing. "Are you really gonna leave me here all by myself?" She asked sticking her lower lip out in a pout. The little girl nodded, her shoulder length hair bouncing as she did so. This time Max couldn't hold it in, golden laughter spilled from her lips. "O' hon your to much." Max gasped wiping your eyes. "We've been up here a hundred times before and all the way to the edge to."
Eva shook her head in protest. "Uh-huh." She repeated sticking two fingers into her mouth. "Haven't." she said around them.
"Have." Max replied her eyes locked with her daughters.
"Maxie, Maxie." A deep voice laughed from behind the little girl causing her to turn suddenly. " You fighting with Eva again?"
"Dada!" Eva cried happily.
"Hey baby." Alec smiled scooping up the little girl in his arms. "What are the two of you up to?"
"Mommy's trying to get me to go to the edge." The three year old quickly informed her father her large brown eyes wide with fear.
"Is that so." Alec asked with an eyebrow raised slightly. Even after three years he still couldn't believe how much like Max Eva looked. He couldn't help but to think this is what she looked like when she was this age. He smiled down at her before looking over at his wife. "Max?" He asked. "Is that true?"
"What will you do to me if it is?" She asked a returning his smile.
Alec stepped through the window Eva still in his arms. " While I can think of a couple of things…" He trailed off with his trademark smirk in place leaving Max's imagination to fill in the rest. The young couple grinned at each other before Max rose.
"Guilty." She whispered as she wrapped her arms around Alec and Eva engulfing them in a hug. Alec closed the small space between them and kissed Max lightly on the lips before pulling back.
"I wanna kiss." Eva informed her parents. The two adults looked from their daughter with her arms crossed across her chest to each other.
"See gets it from you." They both cried at the same time. "No you." Alec asked as Max released her husband and daughter.
(Present)
Alec cut the engine of his bike a block and a half from TC. Swinging his leg over the side and removing his helmet he survived his surroundings. No one was watching him. Good he thought. The X-5 male quickly stashed his motorcycle behind an over flowing dumpster before pilling boxes all around it. It would be safe, he hoped.
'That's what you thought about her.' A little voice chirped up in the back of his head. 'Look what happened.' It sneered as he slipped his sunglasses on even though it was well past midnight.
Alec did look… he looked back to that day all those years ago.
(Past)
"Alec?" A sleepy voice asked in the pale light of a new morning.
"Yeah?" He asked placing a kiss on his wife's cheek.
"What time is it?" She asked rolling over into his warmth.
"Late." He replied stroking her long hair.
"Can't be." She mumbled into his chest.
"Mommy!" A small voice cried from the doorway of her parents' room.
"What?" Max asked in a less then polite voice. Besides her Alec smothered giggles with the back of his hand. Max whacked him on the chest before slipping out of bed.
"Mommy!" The little voice cried again. Max scowled at the three-year-old standing in her doorway.
"She's your daughter." A deep voice chuckled from behind her as he took in the stance of their little girl.
"Can it." Max snapped also noticing one of the girl's hands on her hip and the other holding tight to a stuffed rabbit Joshua had given her when she was born. "She's yours to." Max commented as she scooped the child up in her arms on her way out the door. "What's up?" She asked the little one as the two made their way to the kitchen.
"Hungry." The baby girl pouted as she clutched her fuzzy friend to her.
"I can handle that." Max informed her daughter as she set her down on a counter. "How does cereal sound to you?" Max asked.
"Yummy!" The three year old cried. "Hoppy wants some to." The little girl told her mother which caused Max to smile.
"Really?" Max asked. "Was Hoppy a good rabbit last night?" Even though she hadn't turned around Max knew that her daughter was vigorously shaking her head yes. "I don't know…" Max began as she placed four boxes of cereal on a small table.
"Peas!" The little girl pegged her hands coming together as if she were praying.
"Since you asked so nicely." Max said. "I guess he can."
"She." Eva corrected her mother as she slid down from the counter top.
"Careful sweetie." Max cautioned as she brought bowls and spoons to the table.
"Careful your self." Alec said as he emerged from one of the side rooms a baby held in his arms.
Max raised an eyebrow as she set the milk down in front of an overly eager three year old. "What do you mean?" She asked.
"Just think of all the dangerous things we were doing at her age." Alec reminded her as he placed a kiss on her forehead. Max sighed.
"You don't have to remind me." She replied taking the little bundle from her husband.
"I know." He whispered before removing his arm from around her slim waist. "What's for breakfast?" He asked turning towards the former card table.
"We gots cereal daddy." Eva said in-between spoon fools of coco puffs.
"Mmmmmm." Replied Alec as he took his place at the table. "Sounds better then Mommy's bacon and eggs doesn't it?" He asked earning himself a swat from Max as she walked past him to start the coffee. "Hey!" He cried as Eva laughed into her bowl.
Max smiled slightly at her husband over her shoulder. "I'm getting better." She said.
"My stomach will believe it what it tastes it." Alec mumbled so that neither of his girls' could hear him. Even so Eva looked up at him a mischievous gleam in her eyes. He gave her the don't-you-dare look and she giggled her spoons full of coco puffs stopped in mid air.
The rest of the morning past quickly as the small family got ready for the day ahead of them, dressing, packing lunches for the kids, brushing teeth, changing the babies diaper, gathering together papers for the morning meeting and so on. Finally Max and Alec were out the door Eva and Jack in tow.
"Here Alec take this." Max said handing the other X5 a fat manila folder. "I'll meet you at command center." With that she took Eva's tiny hand in her own larger one pulling her away from their tiny apartment.
"Meet ya there!" Alec called after his dark haired wife as she walked away diaper bag over one shoulder, Jack in one arm while the other hand was occupied with Eva's.
"Bye daddy!" Eva called turning around in her mother's grasp to wave to her father.
"Bye baby." Alec replied as he closed the door to their home. Max and the kids disappeared down the stairs and to the right while he headed left a few seconds after them. They had come to realize that if they didn't part at the door Eva would throw a temper tantrum until she was allowed to go with which ever parent was heading off to the Command Center making them both late in stead of just one. As it stood who ever took the kids to daycare was always late. Being so Max usually took the task upon her self, saying that it was woman's work, besides she liked having a few seconds to greet her old friend Jem who ran the nursery.
After the siege had begun it had become apparent that a few things would be needed around TC one of which was a daycare center for all the babies created by the breeding program back at good ole Manticore. A few of those other things that were needed were a hospital, a cafeteria, a gym, and even a bar. All of which were easily put together. Max smiled as she passed the school set up for the older children and then Joshua's own studio where he did arts and crafts with who ever wanted to.
She knew her big fella wouldn't be there right now because of the morning meeting but still she couldn't help herself from looking. Nope no one was home.
"Kali!" Eva shrieked as the daycare came into sight. Max smiled as she spotted a red haired woman and her curly haired daughter.
"Eva!" The other three year old yelled and the two girls broke away from their mothers and rushed to meet one another. The woman shook their heads smiling as they closed the space between themselves and the daycare.
"Good morning." Hailee said by way of greetings.
"Hey." Max replied as she ushered the two girls before them into the large yellow doors.
"Bye Kali." Hailee said not following Max and the girls' in. "Bye Max."
"See ya later." Max called as the doors swung closed behind her.
"Hi Max." A new voice called over the noise in the daycare.
"Hey Jem. How's Hope?" She asked as she set Jack's diaper back down on the floor near the wall.
"You know." Jem replied as she took the fourteen month old from Max's arms. "Difficult."
Max snorted. "Yeah I know." She replied and the two women laughed. "Maybe today I'll be able to get outta here without a fight." The taller X5 commented as she watched her daughter chat happily with her little friend.
"Hopefully." Jem answered, her eyes to on Eva.
" Bye Eva." Max called to her daughter as she quickly spun on her heels to go.
"No!" The little girl cried her friend momentarily forgotten as she blurred across the room to wrap herself around her mother's leg. Max sighed.
"Not again." The woman groaned as she sunk to the floor taking her now sobbing daughter in her arms. "Eva hon not again please. I'm already late." Max calmly explained to her little girl. Soothingly she stroked the child's back as she continued speaking to her in a soft, even tone. " Jem's hear and so's Kali and all your other friends. Come on baby you know Dad and I will be back later to get you. We always do."
"No! No!" The brunette cried shaking her head from side to side. "Mommy!" Max rolled her eyes over the top of her daughter's head at her little girl's unnecessary fear.
Every morning either Max or Alec went through this mini war with their daughter. It had started shortly before Jack was born when Alec had suddenly gotten his hands full with a crises he wouldn't let Max handle because she was pregnant. During that time the little girl had heard adults talk about missions that no one ever came back from and all those who had already been taken by the war between the ordinaries and the transgenics. It didn't help when Alec had had to go somewhere for a week and was late in returning. Hysterical with fear and convinced that her daddy was never coming back again Eva had clung to her mother. Even after he had gotten back it had taken a while for the two X5's to be able to leave her with Jem again. Still over a year later fear gripped her whenever she was dropped off in the morning. According to Jem though it quickly disappeared after they left. Eva was getting better with her fear but still…
"Sweetie I love you and I'll be back later." Max said firmly as Jem helped pry the child from her mother. "I promise."
"No." Eva said rubbing her eyes with her tiny fists. "Swear."
"Fine." Max sighed. "I swear." And with those words Eva stepped back from her mother allowing the woman to rise and leave.
"Buh bye." She said around the fingers that were now in her mouth.
"See ya sweetie." Max replied with a soft smile. "Bye Jem."
"Bye." The X5 said as Max strode out of the daycare's doors.
Once outside Max didn't waist any time. Quickly she raced to Command Center and arrived only ten minutes late this time. Silently she praised whatever god was up there for allowing her to miss so little of the meeting as she slipped into her seat besides Alec.
"What did I miss?" She asked out of the corner of her mouth as she nodding greetings to Joshua, Mole, Dix, and Luke the original founders of TC.
"Nothing much." Alec replied. "Just attendance and an over view of the last meeting." Max nodded as Hank, a tall X5 with spiky black hair, reported the success of there new fire department. Last month it had become highly apparent that one was needed when a couple of transgenic protesters had started a fire on their side of the fence by throwing half full beer bottles over the fence followed by a lit match. Six people had been lost because of it. And Max hadn't wanted a repeat. Since then TC's fire department had but out five other fires and saved countless others lives because of it. Max smiled as Hank took his seat and Yawny began to speak. The meeting when on peacefully for the most part, Mole having only got into one fight. Alec shook his head and Max rolled her eyes as Mole and Lily debated weather or not it was important for Mole to use their hard earned (stolen) money to get more cigars or not. It was an endless battle and often came up all the other tranny's around the table could do was sit back and watch the show as the two anomalies fought it out.
(A/N: ignore the dotted line my comp won't let me delete it)
How were they to know that that meeting was the beginning of the end? It had gone on like so many others that no one thought anything of Max volunteering to go on a surveillance mission for an upcoming heist. Later on the stubborn X5 had argued with her husband that it would be good for her to get away for a couple of days. In the end he had agreed. After all she hadn't been out on a mission since before the two were married over four years ago.
"Thanx." The beautiful X5 said as she threw some clothing into a black duffle bag. "I really need this."
"Yeah, yeah but next time it's me and you going." Alec said as he wrapped his strong arms around her tiny waist. It didn't look like she had had two children.
"Who says I want that?" Max asked teasingly.
"You know you can't stay away from me for long." Alec replied resting his head on top of hers.
"I know." Max said suddenly serious as she took his hand in hers. She couldn't believe how right it felt for them to be together like this; she couldn't believe that she had fought this for so long. She had been so stupid back then but who'd thought the siege woulda brought them together. She hadn't, not at first at least. "I'm gonna miss you well I'm gone." She whispered.
"Same here." He breathed while rocking the two of them from side to side. "Have you told Eva yet?" He asked after a moment of silence.
"No." She confessed. "She's gonna freak."
"I know." Alec slowing moved his hand over her flat stomach. "But she'll get over it. She always does."
"But," Max began leaning more heavily into her husband's built chest. " This will be the first time I'm away from her and Jack for more then a few hours."
"Are you thinking about staying here with me instead?" Alec asked taking advantage of her uncertainty.
"Alec!" She cried. "Your not helping."
Slowly he laughed. " I know. And don't worry so much me and the kids will be fine. After all it's only four or five days right?"
"Yeah." Max agreed laying her head back against his shoulder. "It'll be fun."
"Yeah," Alec laughed. "Fun's really sitting on top of a cold windy building watching the movements of security guards."
"You're taking away the glamour of getting outta here for a few days." She in formed him as she reluctantly pulled away. "Besides I gotta finish packing."
"When do you leave?" He asked leaning back against their dresser.
"Tomorrow, before dawn."
"Sewer express?"
"Yep." She answered zipping up her bag.
Alec looked at a spot on the floor as she swung the bag over her shoulder. He couldn't help but feel a stab of fear as she left him alone in the room. Quickly he pushed it aside blaming it on nerves. The two hadn't been apart since his last mission and that was before their son had been born, that was before Eva had become deathly afraid that when ever her parents left her that they wouldn't be coming back. A lot had changed in little over a year and yet little had he thought as he followed his mate out the door.
(Present)
Eva wiped away salty tears as she looked out over the cityscape. She couldn't help but feel that sometimes it was all a dream, a really bad one that she would soon wake up from. But then she'd remember that night, the night she left and all of a sudden she would realize that never in a million years could she have imagined such a thing. It was just too intense.
(Past)
Max hung her head sheepishly as she sat on the edge of the bed she and Alec shared. She hadn't worked up the nerve to tell Eva last night and now it was too late. She'd just have to let Alec tell the little spit fire when she woke up that was all there was to it. Sighing Max rose from the bed. It was gonna be a long day and not just for her either.
Quickly the X5 slipped into a skintight black tank top and leather pants before leaving her bedroom with a last backward glance at her husband where he lay sleeping peacefully. "Bye." She mouthed as she silently closed the door to their room hoping not to disturb his angelic form.
Careful not to make a sound Max slipped on her black sneakers and grabbed up her duffle bag from where it lay on the floor besides the door. Slowly she gave her apartment a once over making sure she hadn't forgotten anything before she turned to open the door. She'd get breakfast from the cafeteria.
"Mommy?" A sleepy voice asked. Max turned slowly setting her bag down by her feet as she did so.
"Hey sweetie." The woman greeted her daughter lovingly. "Why are you up so early?"
"Bad dreams." The little girl answered rubbing her tiny fists against her eyes.
"Awww…" Max said as she picked her baby up. "What was it about?"
"You." The little one yawned as she wrapped her arms around her mother's neck. " You went away and a scary man got you." She continued snuggling into her mother's slender body. "He hurt you because you took his son." Eva finished closing her wide brown eyes.
Silently Max stroked the little girl's back. Eva's dream didn't bother her in the least bit the small girl had heard a lot in her short years and often had dreams like this one. Once the little brunette had relaxed into her mother's embrace Max carried her oldest baby back to her bed. Gently she laid her down covering her with a light blanket.
"I love you." Max whispered as her fingers lightly brushed against Eva's blanketed shoulder.
"Love you to mommy." Eva yawned her eyes still closed.
Silently Max's eyes laughed as she withdrew her fingers from her baby girl, "I'll be baby soon kay?" The delicate woman asked.
"Aiight." Eva answered. "Night."
"Night." Max replied absently as she watched her daughter slip off to sleep. "I'll miss you so much." She whispered after a moment.
Eva didn't answer she had fallen back to sleep. Max smiled a little smile suddenly three or four days seemed like an eternity. Finally Max rose from her daughter's bedside with a great sigh. It would only be a few days she told herself.
(Present)
That was the last time they had seen her. She had been the last one to see her and she could barely remember her. Silent tears began to fall from the hardened teens eyes as the wind wiped lose strands of hair from her face. Eva remembered a warm feeling and a strong, teasing voice. That was her mother. Or at least all she could remember of her. Every day someone told her how much she looked just like her. You have her eyes, they'd say, or her hair. They never said that she had her smile though, that she had gotten from her father. Eva smiled slightly through her tears; it had been so long ago that she could hardly remember what had happened yet still she cried.
The next days after her mother had left had passed quickly and were now little more then a blur. One fact was well known though Max and her team never made it to the look out station. Kim later confirmed that but nothing else. She hadn't seen them at all.
(Past)
"Tell me where my son is!" Roared Ames White as he stalked around a bound X5. Max glared back at him her mouth set in a firm line. He couldn't make her talk; besides she didn't know anything.
"You're trying my patients 452." The NSA agent fumed as he struck her once again.
"You know you hit like a girl." Max said as she spat at her captor. The mix of spit and blood landed on the man's shiny black shoes causing White to look down with a scowl.
"You know 452 those were new." He said between his teeth.
"Oh poor baby." Max shot back matching his stare with one of her own.
"You shouldn't be so smug 452." A shiver ran up Max's spin as an evil grin spilled across the familiars features. "After all you wouldn't want to lose your little girl like I lost my son now would you?"
Max knew her face gave her away. How did he know about Eva? "You son of a bitch if you tough a hair on her head!" The X5 mother snarled straining against her bonds.
"Guess I struck a nerve 452 didn't I?" He asked with a wicked laugh as he completed his trek around her bound form.
"I swear if you fing touch her!" Max screamed a part of her mind knowing that this is what he wanted. He wanted her to get upset, he wanted her to break down, he wanted her to break. "I hate you." She hissed.
"The feelings mutual 452." White replied. "And if you just told me where my son is you'd never have to see me again."
"Go to hell." Max yelled her eyes smoldering promises of what he'd do to him if her touched her babies.
"Have it your way." He said before stabbing her with a tazer between the ribs. Max said no more as her body jumped violently like a marionette in the hands of an unskilled puppeteer. Finally sweet oblivion rushed up to meet the bloody X5 as White released her of the electricity's hold. He had had her for three days now, three days of pain and torture, three days of hell. And at this point unconsciousness seemed a gift to good to be true to one so far gone.
(Present)
Easily the X5 strut down the street a block and a half more before coming to his destination, a hidden entrance into TC. Looking at it, it didn't anything more then a manhole but Alec knew about the C4 strapped to the underside as while as the guards positioned a little ways down the tunnel. He also knew about the panel hidden in the cover's metal surface that would allow him safe passage into his home. The haggard man sighed as he bent down. To the casual on looker it would appear as if he were tying his shoe or picking something up that he had dropped either way it gave him a chance to type in the six-digit code quickly. When he heard the familiar click Alec lifted his head to look around, no one was to be seen; expertly he lifted the manhole cover and slid down his feet meeting the half rotted sewage that lay below. Mentally he added take a shower to his long list of this to do over the next twenty-four hours. It would be one hell of a long day.
Just like every other day since she disappeared. First there were search parties to arrange and two small children to look after and comfort and then when he had gotten her back there had been doctors to see and long vigils at TC's hospital and then… and then Alec sighed heavily at the painful memories. If only he could turn back time he thought as he trudged through the filth of Seattle's sewers.
(Past)
Max lay, her body broken and bent, on a cool cement floor her eyes glass and unseeing as Alec broke down the door to the cell where they were keeping her.
"Oh my god Max!" The toned X5 gasped as his eyes feel on his wife. "What did they do to you?" He asked clasping to his knees besides her wasted form. At the sound Max lulled her head back and forth her mouth flying open in a silent scream. Besides her Alec clenched his hand into a tight fist his knuckles turning white as he did so. He vowed to pay White and all his loony companions back for this right then and there.
"Um… sir?" A voice spoke up from behind him, when Alec didn't move or say anything the tranny continued. "We found the other prisoners sir, they're… there dead sir." Alec shuttered as the man went on to explain that the two X6's who had accompanied Max on the recognizance mission had been murdered execution style, hands bound behind their backs.
"Gather them up." Alec ordered after a moment.
"But sir there dead."
"It's Alec and we don't leave anyone behind, no matter what, do you understand me?" Alec asked turning to face the X5 his cold gaze pinning the hardened solider to his spot.
"Y-yes si-Alec!" The man gulped moving only when his leaders gaze had been removed from him.
"Oh and Sean send Doc in here."
"Right away si-Alec." The man bellowed before setting off to complete his assigned tasks.
"Oh Maxie…" Alec said the words nothing more then a breath in his mouth. "What did he do to you?" Lightly Alec stroked his wife's long hair silent tears of grief flowing from his eyes. "I should have been here, I shouldn't have let this happen." HE cried as Max stilled under his touch.
"E-e… va." The brunette chocked out as a dark skinned X5 appeared in the doorway of the cell.
"She's fine." Alec said comfortingly as Doc kneeled besides him.
"That the first time she talk?" Doc asked as he studied his battered patient.
"Yeah." Alec answered his voice suddenly dry.
"We gotta get her back, and fast." The med tech informed Alec. "We might be able to save her." Alec nodded before carefully slipping his arms beneath her light body and hoisting her into the air.
"Let's get going then." The taller of the two said his face not set in his blank mask. The smaller black male nodded his head and followed Alec down the dark corridor.
(Present)
Eva shielded her eyes from the night as she remembered the hard days and nights after ward. Her mother had been MIA for nearly eight months before they had finally found her. Even after they had brought her back she had still not been allowed to see her. Only Daddy and the doctors had.
The teenager remembered living with family friends for a while, spending her little brother's second birthday there without their father and then later on her own fourth birthday. And then the worst part of all came… it was after Eva and Jack had lived with the family friends all throughout the search it came after Max was rescued… it came when Eva was just a week over four years.
(Past)
"Doc tell me what's wrong with her." Alec pleated.
"While she's severely dehydrated and malnourished as you can see. She also lost a lost of blood and has a few broken bones. That's not the problem…" Doc trained off his cocoa eyes sliding away from Alec's hazel ones.
"What is it Doc?" Alec asked the man who had delivered his children, the man that had pulled to many bullets out of his flesh, the man he trusted with his life and the life of the woman he loved beyond life itself.
"She's got a virus, it's like nothing I've ever seen before. It's not like anything that they had a Manticore even and their stuff was high tech to say the least." Alec nodded.
"But you can fix it right?" The dirty blond asked hope creeping into his voice.
"Alec it gets worse." Doc sighed his sad eyes coming up to look at TC's co leader. When the other man nodded Doc continued. "She's pregnant." Alec sucked in a deep breath.
"But she's…" The X5 stuttered his eyes going wide. Suddenly his head snapped up. "Who's is it?" Alec asked.
Doc looked Alec straight in the eyes. "Yours." Alec bowed his head.
"How?"
"I don't know by all accounts the little guy should be dead long ago but somehow." Doc shrugged.
"Is he infected?" Alec asked rubbing the palm of his hand over his face.
"No she's clean." Doc answered. "She's a tiny little thing but well formed from what I can tell."
"Wh-when's she due?" Alec gulped.
"Soon." Doc replied. "Listen to me Alec I can't begin treatment on Max until we get that baby outta there. Like I said it looks well formed and if it's not we'll deal with that but either way we can't help it or Max while it's still in there." Alec nodded his tired mind struggling to take it all in. Max was pregnant.
"How soon can we get it outta there?" Alec asked after a second or so.
"As soon as possible." Doc said. "Believe me man the sooner the better with this one. I mean it's a miracle that she's even still alive."
"Then do it." Alec said. "Do what ever you can to save my wife and kid.
Doc nodded. "That's the plan, Alec, that's the plan." And with that the X5 turned and left.
"Go home Alec." A feminine voice ordered softly, a small hand came down to rest on the worn soldier's shoulder. "Go see you r kids." The woman suggested. "Go." Finally Alec shrugged the hand off and rose.
"See you later Lexie." Alec mumbled as he walked away hands shoved deep in his pockets.
"Go get some rest!" She called after him her electric blue eyes saddened by the sight of him. "Poor, poor guy." She whispered to the now empty corridor.
(Present)
Alec paused when he heard a sound in the tunnel behind him. Slowly he raised his arms into the air and turned around to face the transhuman. "Hey Alec." The dog man said.
"Hey Bill." Alec said returning the greeting with a slight nod of his head.
"Nice night out there?" The black furred male asked raising his gun to indicate the city above him.
"Yeah I guess." Alec answered. Bill nodded.
"See you later."
"Same to you." And with that Alec walked the last few yards to his home. TC.
(Past)
Alec sat on a sterile hospital bed his arms wrapped around the tiniest bundle he had ever held. The baby almost completely concealed by the large, fluffy, pink blankets blinked up at her father. Alec chocked back a sob as he saw his eyes in her face. The old saying third times a charm drifted through his anguished mind. A pain greater then any he had ever felt twisted his heart mercilessly as he gave his youngest child one of his fingers to hold on to.
"Alec I'm sorry but…" Doc began before Alec cut him off.
"Is it about Max is she ok?" He asked in a rush trying to run through his friend to get to his wife.
"Alec it's not her." Doc said shocking Alec into immobility.
"Then what is it?" The X5 asked when he had recovered his voice.
"It's your daughter." Alec starred up at him round eyes.
"What do you mean you said that she was well formed? What's wrong with her?"
"She's not long for this world Alec, She's just to small and malnourished." Doc explained his voice layered thick with emotion.
"Doc can I see her?" Alec asked his voice little more then a whisper. The shorter of the two males nodded.
Alec shook his head at how unfair it all was. His entire race was cramped into the confines of a few city blocks. His wife was intensive care with little hope of survival and his youngest child wouldn't live to see her first birthday. The X5 groaned, he had always been told that the world was unfair that nothing happened the way it was supposed to. It was just that up in till now it had been going so well.
Max and him had been living as close to happily ever after as anyone could in post pulse America. They had two beautiful children, one of each sex, Eva and Jack. And then… and then it had all happened. Max had taken the assignment, been captured, and now… now the end result was staring him in the face making spit bubbles. Alec laughed at the irony of it all. His world was crashing down around him and there was nothing he, or anyone else, could do about it.
A quick rapping at the door caught Alec's attention breaking him out of his train of thought. "Yeah?" He asked not moving.
"It's just me Lexie." A slender X5 said as she came through the door pushing a cart laden with folded sheets. "I'll be gone in a minute." She promised before setting to work around Alec and his baby girl. "So who are Eva and Jack doing?" The platinum blond asked after a moment of silence.
"Fine, Eva wants to see Max though." Alec replied not looking up into the piercing blue eyes he knew to be watching.
Lexie nodded even though TC's co wasn't looking at her. "Understandable, Alec?"
"Uh-huh." He said softly as he genteelly rocked the tiny bundle back and forth.
"How's Jack taking this?" Quickly Lexie looked down to avoid the eyes she knew to be seeking hers. Silently Alec weighted his options. Lexie had been there for both of his children's births as while as Doc. She had nursed them through their early childhood sicknesses along with Max. But most of all she was here now, talking to him when no one else would. In the end he deiced to answer.
"He doesn't understand." Alec sighed his hazel eyes returning to his daughter's. It was easier to pretend that he was talking to her instead of a near stranger.
"He's still so little." Lexie sympathized as she stripped the bedding of a near by bed.
"Yeah." Alec confirmed. "My only fear is that in the end… if…"
"You don't have to say it." Lexie said softly looking through her lashes at her companion as she tossed the sheets she had just removed from the bed into her cart.
"I know but I can't lie to myself either. I…I know there's a chance that she won't come back."
"Alec! Don't say that." Lexie cried with surprising conviction startling Alec, bringing him back to his senses. "You have to believe that she'll pull through. You have to." Alec looked up at the other X5 his eyes meeting hers. It startled him to see the young woman so visibly near to tears.
"Lexie?" He asked his eyes holding hers as they stood there in the TC hospital room.
"Alec I have something to confess." The twenty-eight year old said her voice trembling just as much as her hands were. The latter she hid by gripping the sheets she held tightly against her flat stomach. "M-max was the first other transgenic I saw on the out side. She rescued me from White. I think you were there to, I don't remember it all happened so fast." Lexie paused to shake her head. "Sh-she used to come and talk to me in the early days. You know when ever she was in TC and I wasn't busy." Lexie looked down. "She's my hero Alec. And I don't know what I'd do if you gave up hope on her because, Alec, your the one she loves. The one she's gonna look for to guide her outta all of this shit. So Alec please don't give up hope on her."
"Thanx Lexie."
"For what?" The slender female asked returning to her work as if nothing had just happened.
"For everything." And with that Alec rose from his perch, the baby in his arms, and made to leave. "I'll see you later Lex."
"Yeah, later." The two shared a small smile and then Alec disappeared out of the door.
(Present)
Something changed that day, Eva could remember, something big. At the time she hadn't know about the baby after all it still didn't have a name. In fact the little girl lived for two whole months before Doc broke down and told Alec that he mind as well name the kid. Eva's face split into a small grin at one of her earliest memories. Alec had asked her to help pick the name.
(Past)
"So hon what do you think?" Alec asked as he sat side by side with his oldest little girl.
"About what?" The four year old asked shrugging her little shoulders.
He couldn't help but to smile. "About a name for your little sister silly."
"Oh." She said her mouth going round as she did so. " I like Hazel."
"Hazel?" He asked remembering the baby's vivid, expressive eyes. "Honey why Hazel?"
"Because." The little girl said swinging her legs back and forth, one of her fingers stuck in her mouth. "That's what my friend's other name is."
"Other name?" Alec asked lost as to what she meant as he ran down a mental list of all of his daughter's friends.
"She called it her middle name. Daddy?" Eva asked her chocolate brown eyes growing wide.
"Yes, Eva?" He returned looking into her eyes.
"Why don't I have a middle name?"
"You do." Alec answered. " It's Rachelle."
"So my names Eva Rachelle?" Eva asked and Alec nodded. "Ooooo! Does that mean that Hazel can have a middle name to?"
Alec smiled down at his daughter and ruffled her hair. "Yep, short stuff you got it."
"Michelle." The little girl answered promptly her eyes shinning happily. Suddenly Alec felt a stab of pain at the look. The look Max was missing while she was in the hospital. She was missing so much of their children's lives and Alec couldn't help but feel for her. Nothing meant more to her then her children he knew. Not even her own life.
"Why Michelle?" He asked pushing those thoughts away. Max was stable right now, She'd been stable for the last month and a half and right now that was a good thing.
"Because it sounds like Rachelle." Eva answered as if even the question was a silly one. Alec bit back a laugh as the four year old tossed her long hair over she shoulder. She was so much like her mother it hurt to be near her at times like this. Protectively Alec wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulders.
"You know what Eva," Alec began. " That sounds good."
(Present)
Eva wrapped her arms tighter around herself protecting herself more from her memories then from the chill of the Seattle air around them. Everything had seemed to be getting back on track those few months and then… The teen shuttered.
Slowly Max had moved out of stable condition. Resisting the foods that she had been eating, getting thinner and paler again. Alec still hadn't let the kids see her even when she had been stable for those five long months. Eva knew why too. It was because of all those tubs and monitors that were in the room along with her.
At the same time baby Hazel Michelle was growing stronger baffling Doc and the others on TC's medical staff. At the end of seven months the little baby had been allowed to go home. Home to Eva, Jack, and some times even Alec. The kids were now living with Jem and Hope. They had been for the past month when Hazel had come home.
Even then times hadn't seemed so bad for Alec. He still had hope for his wife in a large part because of his talks with Lexie and in a small part because he was too stubborn to let go. At the end of four more months Max wasn't taking food any longer. Meaning that even more tubs were added.
By this time little Hazel was but a month away from her first birthday and doing fine. Healthy and happy she was developing as normally as possible considering the circumstances. That didn't mean that she was safe though. Eva thought as she vigorously rubbed her arms. The temperature had suddenly dropped a notch as the teen sat by herself on top of the Space Needle.
Things tended to happen in threes back then it seemed. The first thing happened to Max, she finally gave out after a year and half of struggling against her injuries, and the virus White and his loony cult buddies had planed within her. Then a week later the familiars stuck again, not against the transgenics but against the ordinaries. The whackos had released a bio toxin created from the snake blood that they worshiped causing the ordinaries to drop like flies as the toxic spread like wildfire. The toxin didn't hurt the transgenics but the remaining uninfected ordinaries did. Despite all TC tried to do by way of creating an anti toxin it didn't stop the arm from attacking. Mandy people died that year swelling the numbers in TC's graveyard by hundreds.
Absently Eva wiped a stay tear from her check. Hazel hadn't made it through all the mess. She along with many other small children grew ill during that year. Most of them lived but a few, especially those with some sort of disability, perished. That had been twelve years ago though.
In twelve years the remaining ordinary population had been forced to team up with the transgenics in order to survive the assaults but the now very bold familiars. Each side fought to avoid genocide and in the end the familiars had lost. Eva looked up at the stars no longer caring that tears ran freely from twin pools of chocolate brown. The war had taken many more from among their numbers and in a way Eva envied her dead mother and sister because they had avoided such a horrible end.
The end being that two thirds of the Earth's population had died in ten years, leaving the last third to rebuild the world as best they could. Once again the ordinaries had turned to the transgenics for help. Help to nurse their sick, help to survive without hardly any technology, to survive how their ancestors had by growing things. They were still helping the ordinaries; after all it took a lot more then two years to rebuild the world. Slowly they were getting there, slowly but surely.
"Eva?"
"Yeah?"
"I though I'd find you here." A male voice said as the teen offered a smile.
"So what do you want Jack?"
"Nothing." The fifteen year old said as he easily dropped down besides his older sister. "Are you thinks about mom again?"
"Am I that transparent?" The brunette asked looking out over the city.
"Naw, it's just the day." Jack answered with a shrug also looking out over the city.
"Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever feel like mom's watching us when we come up here?" Eva asked.
Ice-cold fingers crawled up Jack's back as the two of them sat there high about the rest of the world. "Yeah, Sometimes. You?"
"Uh-Hum." Eva replied with a small nod. "I do."
- Back in TC-
Alec stood at the foot of his daughter and wife's graves flowers in his hands as the sun peaked out from over the horizon. A single salty tear slid down the smooth surface of the ageing man's check as orange light began to paint the world dazzling colors.
"I love and miss you both." He mumbled laying the bouquets down on top of the neat mounts. "And no matter what I always will."
All around him the world came a live as the sun's pale rays poked and prodded it awake. And for a moment Alec looked up to see a shimmering light bathing the two graves he stood before. "M-max." He breathed as a lump formed in his throat. Uselessly he reached out a hand to the transparent from of his wife, whole and health, holding a small baby on her hip.
And then Alec blinked and they were gone again. "Always." He declared one final time before turning to find his two remaining children. He suddenly knew exactly where they'd be.
A/N: Hope you liked it and sorry it's so long. Review please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!