Just want to acknowledge once more my kind beta Flamyz of Ice yet again who is making this all possible. The meat patty choking off air supply line in previous chapter was hers and a couple of others.
Part One
"Look I know it hurts, but stop whining about it would ya?" Alec told Max, holding her firmly round her waist.
"I've just never let anyone do that before," Max said, chewing her bottom lip in agitation.
"Well there's a first time for everything Maxie," Alec remarked, lowering her back on the ground. "C'mon it was inevitable, you know it was going to happen sooner or later, and it's with someone you love and trust isn't it?"
"Yeah," Max admitted, her breasts brushing Alec's chest as she slid down him. "I was scared at first but I think I'm starting to come round to the idea," stepping back.
"Good, because I won that coin toss fair and square back at the Ranch this morning. Zack rides your bike and you ride pillion with me. I'm not changing my mind, no matter how much you whine."
Alec flicked on the light switch and the room lit up. "Good thinking, getting the working lightbulb from the closet for the kitchen area."
"Counter was crawling with African termite. Didn't trust my weight on it," Max said, "Thanks for lifting me."
"Hey, I wanted illumination too. Just because we can see in the dark doesn't mean I like showing off. It's too much like 'lights out' back at Manticore, then they came to you in the dark for tests if you were sick," Alec shook himself. Max knew about that, why relive their happy Manticore childhood memories?
Alec forced himself back to the present.
"You wonder why they built ceilings high like that two centuries ago."
Alec reached into his backpack and brought out a tin of chicken flavored Genetically Engineered peas, a product of Bangladesh. American Farmers protectionism had gone the way of the Dodo years ago.
Max screwed up her nose in disgust. "No baked beans huh?"
"Shelves were empty at the market on Thursday, no beans of any kind, period." Alec opened the tin of G.E. peas with his knife.
The three transgenics had been riding all day and had intended to go through the night but Zack had developed a migraine late in the afternoon and they had had to check into a roadside hotel.
"Zack's been asleep for awhile," Max commented. "I think regaining all of his memory at once, has tired him out." She sat on the floor. "I hope his brain is back to normal."
"Seems to be," Alec heated up the peas on the stove.
"How would you know? You never knew him normal." Max picked at a hole in her jeans.
"Hello! I knew his clone, X5-600 or Lane since we prefer names, back at Manticore. He was even more humorless than Zack the way Sam's even bitchier than you, if that's possible."
Alec tasted the peas and made a face. "Dear God that's disgusting, you try." He held out a spoon.
Max swallowed and made a face, "Foul."
"Yeah it's meant to be chicken. F O W L, god rent a sense of humor some time," Alec joked as Max rolled her eyes yet again, "Maybe Zack will eat it."
Alec looked in his pack again. "I have banana flavored pretzels imported from Cuba, expiry date 2017, a very good vintage."
"Last time I'll let you do rations," Max sat on the floor and ate the pretzels. "What I don't get, is if Sam and I and this X5 Lane and Zack are so similar, why aren't you insane like Ben?"
"Maybe not having constant access to serotoninaffected his brain development, maybe he got hit on the head in a food or fuel riot., Alec shrugged, "I thought Ben was kinda a painful subject for you?"
"It is, but I'm curious about seeing Sam again. I mean clones … that's whack."
Max glanced at him quickly, "I don't see Ben anymore when I look at you, not since we had that talk in my apartment, six weeks ago."
"So you don't see me as a brother?" Alec checked. Damn good news to have that confirmed.
"No I guess not, never did."
Max threw him the pretzels packet. "I'm gonna check on Zack."
Max went in and found Zack still sleeping peacefully in the large bed. She and Alec had made Zack take the room with the double bed on the pretext of his headache and needing space, leaving them the room with two singles. Max covered Zack with a blanket and stroked his hair. Max loved Zack deeply and really was glad to be reunited with him.
Alec stared out the window of their eighteenth century crumbling hotel. He had been waiting for Logan to appear. And here was Cale's car now. Logan must be tracking them somehow.
"Hey Max, I'm just getting some beer, you want some?" Alec offered, as she re-entered the room.
"Yeah, Molson Canadian thanks."
The American brands of beer were a consumer item only drank by the truly desperate now, so dubious their product content since the Pulse.
Alec snuck down stairs and listened as Logan checked in and got the room next to theirs. Too bad this town had only the one hotel. Logan must be worried about being discovered. Alec raised a window and jumped out so he didn't meet Logan in the stairway. He wondered how he might next amuse himself at Logan's expense.
When Alec returned, Zack was up and about, staunchly forcing the G.E. peas down. Max was reading the hotel's fire safety guide out of sheer boredom, seeing Idaho was being run by the religious right and all channels on TV but the state approved frequencies were jammed. Which meant animated bible stories with dancing burning bushes, evangelical preachers and tonight, an endless replay of Mel Gibson's the Passion of Christ.
Alec put the beer gently down on the table, mindful of the African termites and tossed down three huge novels in front of them.
"The biggest they had down in reception folks."
Zack reached for War and Peace. Max grabbed Lord of the Rings. That left for Alec…
"Oh thanks guy," Alec said sarcastically. He flopped onto a couch and started on Scarlett O' Hara's adventures in the Civil War. He could hear Logan moving round in the next room; the walls were thin.
Alec smiled evilly, this was gonna be a walk in the park.
Eventually all the transgenics went to bed. Max changed in the bathroom and requested in combat sign language (so Zack wouldn't know she and Alec weren't a couple) for Alec to do the same.
Alec shook his head and proceeded to peel off his clothes. He refused to act like an Ordinary in front of another transgenic. If it was so terrible for her, Max could shut her eyes.
Max stared at the ceiling, listening to Alec change. She didn't care much if she saw him naked, but it was the principle. They weren't soldiers.
He switched off the light and got into bed. Max could hear him turning on the squeaky bed.
"Damn, nearly forgot."
Alec raised himself off the bed. Crouched on his hands and knees in the middle of his mattress, he began to bang the bed rhythmically against the dividing wall to the next room. His bed springs squeaked and all in all, it made a hell of a racket.
"What the hell are you doing Alec?" Max hissed in the darkness, bewildered.
"Stopping the African termites from chewing the wall in the middle of the night, and keeping us awake. Reception said banging the wall like this, continuously for five minutes stuns them and they won't bother us till dawn," Alec explained softly. "Sorry, I didn't remember earlier."
"It sounds like…" Max stopped self-consciously.
"What, Max?" Alec said innocently in a quiet voice.
"You know exactly what it sounds like!" Max snapped, aware of the amusement hidden in the tone of his voice and trying not to laugh with embarrassment herself.
"Making love?" Alec shook his head teasingly, "You have a filthy mind, little girl."
Max threw 'Lord of the Rings' at him.
She lay in silence for three minutes trying to get to sleep, it was impossible. She sat up and screamed at him.
"My god Alec, I can't take it any more!"
"Ssh you'll wake Zack," Alec scolded her, inwardly glowing with delight. Could she have screamed out a better phrase? "Come over and help me then," He whispered. "Don't worry, I'm wearing my boxers."
"Help you how?" Max hissed.
"Get on this bed and slap the walls with your hands, don't use your fists, you might go through the wall. It won't work on your bed - termites in the legs. Reception warned me, bed might collapse."
Max hopped out of her bed and climbed onto Alec's, kneeling on his pillows. She slapped the walls with her outstretched palms.
"No, lower down Max, apparently that's the heart of the nest," Alec instructed her, still whispering. "This way I've got them from below and you've got them from above, good huh?"
"If you say so," Max said in a low voice. It was only the fact that Alec kept whispering so as not to wake Zack, that was convincing her he was being serious, and not playing some elaborate practical joke on her.
"That's good Maxie," Alec raised his voice slightly in encouragement. "Harder?"
Max slapped the walls with her hands with all her might. She could not believe this, why hadn't Alec remembered to do this earlier?
"No, harder Maxie," Alec called out to her, increasing his rocking of the bed.
Max slapped the walls even harder.
Alec stopped rocking the bed, he'd blow the game if he yelled out 'Oh god' or something dumb like that. Let Logan torture himself wondering why transgenics didn't yell out when they climaxed.
"Thanks Max," Alec said, as she crawled off the bed, "I just hate the sound of insects chewing, y'know?"
"I feel real sorry for whoever's on the other side of that wall," Max yawned.
"Well they didn't tell us to knock it off … maybe they were getting off on it?"
"Ugh, good night."
"Night Maxie," Alec grinned to himself. Logan could hardly have yelled at them to be quiet. Max would have recognized his voice.
Logan had lain in torment in the darkness, the five minutes seeming much longer to him. All he had been able to make out was Max screaming out the words "My god Alec, I can't take it anymore." But the banging and slapping sounds had made the situation next door transparently obvious .
Part two
Sam looked at her shift manager in annoyance. She had only managed to get this job last week, cash in hand working as a dish washer. But now the shift manager wanted a private meeting with her. What the hell for? She knew what her sleazy supervisor in San Francisco had wanted 'private meetings' for.
"Look Sam," her manager sighed, not meeting Sam in the eye. "I've got a real hard problem. By the end of the day, I've either got to lay you or Jack off..."
Sam sneered, "Then you're gonna have to jack off asshole, 'cause I'm not screwing you to keep this job."
"No Jack Fraser, the other new guy and lay you off, as in not employ you anymore," the hapless manger explained, going slightly pink.
"Guess I've just made that decision easy for you then, huh?" Sam bit her lip, mentally kicking herself for her paranoia.
"Oh, no, Sam, I just wanted to know if you really wanted the job or not. If you and Jack both do, I'll toss a coin over it. I really can't decide between the two of you. You're both good workers."
The manager put his hands in his pocket defensively. Did he come off like a sexual harasser in the work place or something? Maybe it was his moustache, maybe he should shave it off?
"Thanks, give Jack the job. I think I'll be able to get another one soon," Sam told him.
Sam walked home at the end of her shift. Forty dollars in her pocket. She knew 494 would be waiting outside her door with papers for her and it gave her a sense of empowerment and freedom.
A pity her husband had to leave her, but Sam couldn't really blame him. Sam had married Steve mostly to keep her cover and felt obligated to save him and his son from White's goons. Sam was looking forward to meeting up with transgenics again. Sam had been undercover since 2017 pretending to be someone she wasn't and the stress had taken it's toll. Her habit of smoking for one.
Sam went to her apartment and saw 494 waiting in the corridor with her clone and Lane.
"Lane?" Sam couldn't believe her eyes. She ran up and hugged him. "Shit when I saw that news last May about the Pope's assassination, I thought it was you. 600, I thought you were dead."
Lane looked puzzled, gently pushing her back. "I killed the pope?"
"Sam, sorry," Alec said, looking at her with pity. He knew she had always been fond of Lane. "This is Zack, he's an 09er. Lane is dead. He knew he was being sent on a suicide mission by all accounts."
"Sorry for leaping on you like that," Sam said coldly to Zack. "So you brought my papers Freck?"
"Yeah," said Alec. "And remember, it's Alec now, or go back to 494."
"Sorry 'Alec'."
Sam looked at her new papers aghast. "You're fucking kidding me 494!"
"Now Sammie," Alec said reasonably to her, "What could be more your scene, than as an experienced geriatric care giver after that sham marriage of yours to that Ordinary. How old was he again?"
"Forty," Sam slapped him on the arm, irritated. "As you well know, seeing as how it was the first thing you asked Steve, and then asking him how old he thought I was."
Max watched their exchange in fascination. Was that how she looked when she ragged on Alec?
Sam spun round and turned on Max. "What the hell's with the staring 452 Take a picture, it'll last longer."
"Nothing, I was waiting to take you to meet up with the other transgenics like you wanted," Max told her scary clone. "If you still want to?"
"Yeah, I need to be with my own kind, drives me crazy being out with Ordinaries," Sam replied, "Who are they?"
"A nine year old X8 called Bugler , two female sixteen year old X6s, Ralph and Fixit, two seventeen year old male X6s, Bullet and Zero, and X5 692 Biro. He's twenty-three."
"Apparently, they're living in a big old house with room for you and Zack," Max explained to Sam.
Part three
The handsome X5 Max had rescued from exposure to a deadly transgenic pathogen, looked at his young roommate with high emotion.
"No Ralph, you're too young," Biro told her, pushing her away violently. "I won't do it."
"Fourteen is the legal age of consent here and I'm sixteen," Ralph strode towards him and leapt over the couch. "Don't be silly Biro, don't fight me on this. I'm X6, I'm as strong as you are."
Biro leapt over the couch the other way. "No, you'll just have to wait till you're old enough, by American standards that's eighteen Ralph."
"You're a patronizing X5 pig. We're in Canada now."
Ralph dived over the couch and tackled Biro. She landed on his chest and they wrestled furiously, panting.
"Don't be stupid Biro," Ralph told him, her pert young breasts heaving, her face flushed, her long blonde hair hanging loose around her shoulders. "I know you want it too. So why are you denying us this opportunity to get what we both want?"
Biro looked up at her and gasped as her hands jerked at the waistband of his jeans. She had him pinned down so he couldn't escape. Ralph felt frantically for the tell tale bulge in his jeans. She seized upon it's long, hard, smoothness with triumph.
"Hah ha, got it!" Ralph danced a dance of victory, waving the remote in the air. "Yeah baby! That means I pick the sports channel, seeing as it's my name on the contract and my wages contributing to the pay TV as well."
"Okay, you win Ralph. Just turn on the basketball, will ya? We've already missed five minutes fooling around huh," Biro picked up himself off the floor and sat on the couch.
"I'm going with Murdoch news, like I said I wanted in the first place." Ralph turned on the television and sat beside him.
"You would."
Biro and Ralph's heads turned at the knocking coming from their front door.
"Oh crap." Biro got up to see who it was.
Biro and Ralph welcomed Zack and Sam into their home gladly. They explained the others were out at a park and would be back soon.
Alec watched Sam unpack her things. "You think you'll be okay here Sammie?" he checked.
Sam nodded. "Yeah at least I won't die alone. Come on Freck. It's not looking good. What with White wanting us all dead."
"Nah," Alec squatted down. "Hey you remember Max's ex boyfriend, Logan?"
"The stalker, yeah what about him?" Sam asked, kneeling as she unpacked her suitcase.
Alec smirked, he'd guessed Sam hadn't been impressed by Logan. "Could you help me out with something, for old time's sake 453?"
AN: Lane actually existed in official Dark Angel back plot. Read official tie in Eyes Only Dossier and was indeed killed assassinating the pope.