It had been two months since Alex had taken over the Castro and Lower Haight regions, becoming the youngest gang leader in recent history. Alex sat on the stoop of her house late one night, reading her favorite datapad, History's Most Notable Women of Science. Since moving up to the City, she hadn't had as much time to read as she would have liked. Before, when she was working with the Reds, she had stayed occupied with repairs and leading her own small squad, but now that she was the head of her own gang and trying to keep her territory secure, she was busier than ever.

Thankfully, she had Thomas and Moira to help keep things running smoothly, but at the end of the day, all the final decisions came down to Alex. All of that responsibility seriously cut into her reading time, but now it was one-thirty in the morning and all her duties were done except for one: a delivery of new shield mods to John. The backpack that held the shields was sitting next to her. There were only about ten of them, so the bag was mostly empty and looked a little sad and droopy. In order to make the delivery, Alex had to wait for Moira to get back from her late night run, a sort of changing of the guard. The fog was thick that night. While not as bad as it could be, visibility was only a block at best. Alex zipped up her warm jacket all the way, flipping up the hood to cover her head, and settled in to read for a bit.

She had read the datapad countless times over during the past two years, still gleaning new information from it every time. This time, she decided to focus on one of her favorite women in the book, Hedy Lamarr. A famous actress during the mid-twentieth century, Lamarr had also been an inventor and brilliant mathematician. It was her, along with a man named George Antheil, who had invented an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping. That work had been necessary for the development of wireless communication in the later part of the twentieth century and had laid the groundwork for everything that had come after. Lamarr was definitely one of Alex's favorites. In fact, Alex was so enraptured by her reading that she didn't register Moira's approach until her friend plopped down on the stoop beside her.

Moira was always fast and quiet. With the fog as cover, one minute there was nothing, the next, Moira was there. Alex jumped a bit at that; normally, she was the only one who Moira didn't startle. She had gotten used to it from being around her friend so long. "Fuck, Moira! You scared the shit out of me!"

Her friend laughed. "Sorry, boss. I wasn't even trying to be stealthy. You were just so into that book that you didn't notice." Moira leaned over to examine what was on the datapad. "Still reading the datapad Esteban gave you?"

A pang of loss did a little dance in Alex's chest. She tried not to let it show, but a small smile crossed her face anyway as she thought of her old friend and his last gift to her. "Yeah, I still learn something new every time. Plus, some of these women were gorgeous as well as brilliant, and some came from even more messed-up backgrounds than I did. Why wouldn't I want to learn everything about them?"

Moira leaned over, nudging Alex's shoulder with her own. "Ya know, boss, if you keep your mind on all those gorgeous people in your books, you might miss a real one that comes along."

Alex snorted at that comment. She and Moira had had this conversation before. They were, in fact, teenagers, and hormones were always running wild. Alex knew that Moira wasn't hitting on her, though. For one thing, Moira was most definitely straight, for another, the two young women were more like siblings than anything. The biggest issue with Moira's suggestion was their line of work.

While Alex tried to run their gang like a democracy, trying to stay as nonthreatening as possible so as not to attract the attention of the police, there was no escaping the fact that it was a gang. Her people weren't thugs, necessarily, but they were con artists, thieves, spies, blackmailers and developers of weapon mods. While they did not extort people with violence, they did so with information. While they did not sell Red Sand, they did move counterfeit or stolen product. And when they had to, they killed people. That was how they supported themselves, under constant threat of attack from other groups.

Thankfully, the Forgotten's swift and efficient extermination of the Golden Onez had made other gangs cautious of dealing with what appeared to be a band of nothings. They were now reasonably respected, and everyone knew that they had the support of the Tenth Street Reds, as well. Despite all of the gains that her new little gang had made in the past two months, Alex's life simply was not one that was conducive to romance. Plus, she was still only sixteen. This wouldn't be her life forever – she had promised Esteban that – so there would be time for dating later.

"Moira, first of all, I told you not to call me 'boss.' To you, it's always 'Alex.' Secondly, we've had this conversation before. I honestly just don't see myself having a boyfriend or a girlfriend anytime soon. Hell, you know I plan on joining the Alliance once I turn eighteen. So, between this life and that one, I don't see anything more than a one-night stand happening before I turn twenty-five."

At that, Moira burst out laughing so hard that she doubled over and fell down one step.

Alex looked at her friend like she had lost her mind. Maybe she has finally lost it. Her tone was cautious, "Uh, Moira? What the hell is so funny?"

Moira was still rolling on the steps, being extremely loud for so early in the morning, tears streaming down her face.

A light in the second story of the building across the street turned on, and a man's voice yelled down to them, "Quiet down out there!"

Moira bit down on her hand, forcing herself to calm down and breathe steady, deep breaths. After a few more seconds, she was calm enough to sit back on the step next to Alex. Her body still shaking a bit from laughter, she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Yeah, sorry, boss, I'm fine. But damn, that was a jinx if I ever heard one."

Alex's eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean, a jinx?" She knew Moira was superstitious, but that seemed to be going a bit too far.

"I mean that it's like someone talking about a no-hitter in baseball, you know the next person up to bat is going to get a hit. Or someone in a vid saying, 'What could possibly go wrong?' And then something horrible always goes wrong. By you saying that about romance, you have practically guaranteed that the next person you set eyes on, you will fall head over heels in love with."

That caused Alex's eyes to roll. "Okay, now that's just stupid. No way that's going to happen. Like I said, love just isn't in the cards for me."

Moira pointed right at Alex's face, her index finger just millimeters from her friend's nose, "That! That right there! If you had been some guy in a war vid, showing off a picture of your girl back home, you would have been shot right then. At this point, with how much you're jinxing yourself, if we weren't family I'd swear you'd be falling in love with me right now."

Alex laughed then, though more quietly than Moira had. The whole concept, from the jinx to Moira's fear of Alex falling in love with her, was just ridiculous. She smacked her friend's hand away and shoved her lightly, sending Moira's butt scooting down a stair. Then with a soft grunt, Alex stood and stretched. She looked down at her omni-tool. "Well, it may be almost two in the morning, but I still need to make that delivery to John." She saved the point where she was in her book, then shut down her datapad.

Moira rose as well. "Okay, boss. I'll come with."

"Oh no you don't. I need you here to hold down the fort. Thomas is out doing who knows what, and I need to make the run personally. That leaves you to stay here and keep an eye on things. The drone is on sentinel duty inside and the security system is off. Don't turn it on until I get back. I still haven't gotten the security pad out here to work right, so I won't be able to get back in otherwise." Alex leaned down and grabbed the backpack, slinging it over one shoulder. "It's not that far, so I'm gonna walk. Plus, I could really use the chance to stretch my legs."

"Just make sure to be on the lookout for damsels in distress, or whatever their male equivalent is." Moira fluttered her eyelashes. "They will probably be your true love."

That drew a short bark of laughter from Alex. "One: the boys I like tend to act more like damsels anyway, and two: not gonna happen."

Moira headed inside. "And with that, I'm going inside to put fresh sheets on one of the spare beds, because at this point, you're gonna bring home a harem." She shut the door behind her, letting herself have the last word.

Alex simply shook her head as she began her walk toward Market Street and her old territory. She knew that she was safe making the run by herself. While she was a teenage girl, all the homeless people and thugs knew her and wouldn't mess with her. Plus, she still carried her trusty pistol with her, should anything truly dangerous arise. She reached Market and started walking south, going over the conversation with Moira in her mind. With all the talk about jinxes, Alex had to admit that she was a little nervous. Nah, most everyone knows me or is already asleep. Nothing is gonna go wrong.

A rumble like ominous thunder sounded from nearby, causing Alex to start. She turned to see that it was only the rattling of the F-line drawing near. She smacked herself lightly to snap herself out of it. Apparently, her chat with Moira had rattled her more than she had thought.