Choices

by Mystic25

UPDATE CHAPTER 28 SUMMARY: Jessie finally asks Max about her past

21. Forces of Nature

Choices 22-"Forces of Nature"

Author: Mystic25

Email: littlegirlisland34hotmail.com

SUMMARY: A storm blankets Seattle, stranding Max in labor at her mother's house with Zack who has major hostilites with Lucia being Max's 'mom'.

DISCLAIMER: X5's are yours Cameron. Logan is yours. Cindy is yours. Normal is yours...you see where I'm going with this? I have three or four characters to my name, no cash, no source of getting cash. You'd be better off stealing money from your staff then trying to squeeze it out of me. But if you give me Zack I'll see if I can work out some sort of deal.

A/N: This is for Sammie, who takes the painstaking time to beta these long chapters. Thank's girl, I appreciate it, major props for you.

SEATTLE

9:20 AM

"Baby where are you going?" Rick watched his wife rolling a tube of coral-colored lipstick onto her full bottom lip.

"I'm paying Max a visit," Lucia said. She re-capped the tube of make-up, examining her appearance in the oval, ivory-colored mirror that hung on the wall of the hallway beside the stairs.

"I don't think she'd care if you got all dolled up," Rick responded, turning down the volume on the Lakers game he was watching. "Don't you think you're spending too much time over there? She might not appreciate the intrusion."

Lucia shot him a low glare. "You calling my visits an intrusion Rick?"

"No I'm not Luc," he defended, indicating himself by holding the remote to his chest for a moment. "But the woman's nine months pregnant, and she's got her hands full with two kids and a job. I just thought she might like some down time."

"Trust me babe, she doesn't mind." Lucia replaced the compact in her black leather handbag. "Es me hija. Conozco estas cosas." (She's my daughter. I know these things.)

"You do know I can't understand a word you say when you speak Spanish."

She grinned, "That's the beauty of it."

He threw a maroon couch cushion at her.

Lucia ducked before the pillow hit her. She had been on the basketball team in high school and could dodge any incoming object like it was her professional career. "I thought you found my espanol sexually alluring."

"Honey I'll say anything at night to get you to-"

"Watch it," Lucia warned holding up her hand. "You don't want to start spouting off the fact you enjoy my Spanish for your own waton desires."

"Then what's the fun in you speaking Spanish at all?" Rick shot back. This time he had to duck when she pitched her waterproof mascara at his head.

"I'll play around later Rick." Lucia said as she approached her husband, kissing the top of his sandy brown hair.

"Play around now." He pulled her down on the couch beside him and started sucking on her neck with kisses.

"Baby stop, you're going to smudge up my make-up."

"And you know you know love every minute of it." He returned his lips to her neck, working his way up to just below the flesh of her chin. "You are way too fine to be a grandmother."

"I'm already a grandmother Rick." Lucia reminded. "Which, I might remind you, makes you a grandpa."

"Hey Max is your daughter not mine remember?" He meant it as a joke but felt her tense up after he said it. He pulled back to see her trying to hide her anger, and doing a really bad job of it. "Hun, you know I didn't mean it like that." He rubbed her shoulder. "Max is great. Getting to know her for the past year has been a fantastic. I'm just still trying to adjust to how you gave birth to her at some military base; also how she's some tinkered up secret experiment."

"It's been over a year since I tracked her down and you still aren't 'adjusted?'" Lucia's words were very defensive. "I know from personal experience that getting out of Manticore is no cakewalk and neither was living there. You have no idea what kind of things went on behind those doors."

/FLASH: Lucia tried to break out of the grip the MP's had on her arm, but they were too strong for her. Her nine-month pregnant belly was coated in sweat underneath her long sleeved shirt.

They dragged her into an examination room and strapped her down.

"Don't take my baby you fuckin' bastards!" a man in white scrubs strapped her arm down in restraints while another injected a powerful sedative in the veins of her wrist. She stopped struggling soon after that./

"All I'm saying is-"

"No I heard what you said Rick," Lucia cut him off. "And in the future I'd appreciate it if you don't put down MY daughter who's about to deliver MY grandchild in a few days." Her emotions were so high that she was panting from the force of them.

Rick watched his wife's chest move in and out for a moment. "I'm sorry sweetie." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

The rage in her eyes went down a level. "That won't cut it all the time." She didn't move for several seconds, just staring at him. "Time for this lady to get out of here." She stood up on her brown lace up Sketchers. "How about arroz con el pollo tonight?" This was to let him know that she was forgiving his remark.

"Sounds great," he agreed.

She smiled, all last evidence of her anger fading. She couldn't stay mad at him for long. Not unless the situation really warranted it. "What time will you be home?"

"Around seven." Rick took a moment to stretch his arms over his head. "Jerry wants that new shipment of mahogany for the flooring of the hotel delivered today. It's a big haul." After he answered her, he looked up into the chocolate brown eyes that he loved so much. "You working the second job today?"

She shook her head. "Crime in this city has taken a break, so I don't have to fake a sick day for Mark."

He stood up to face her, wanting to look her directly in the eye for his next remark. "I don't like the way that guy eyes you." 'Eyeing' was an understatement for the way the man would run his gaze all over her body, like he had lost something on her skin and was trying to find it. "Nobody appreciates getting a cup of coffee that much."

"Mark is harmless." Lucia reassured, "He's a chauvinist and obnoxious as hell, but he's a pussy cat when it comes to anything that would land him with a police record."

"All I know is if that bastard tries that 'you have a drop of coffee on your blouse let me get that for you,' act again I'M going to be the one that lands the police record."

Lucia was a fiercely independent woman who resented any man treating her like she should either be put on display or in front of a stove; but she still felt a rush of satisfaction at Rick defending her honor. "I'm not a cop baby, but if you lay off Mark I'll find a pair of handcuffs and lock you up tonight."

He raised his eyebrows at her, crossing his arms over his sage green v-neck sweater. "Lucia Weston, I never pictured you for a kinky lady."

"Kinky ladies are nothing but nasty hoes Rick." She stepped over to him and threw her arms around his neck "But me, I make it look good." She kissed him full force, hot and wet.

He fell into the kiss, pulling her closer with his hand on the back of her neck. "I thought you were supposed to be leaving to see Max?"

She broke apart from the kiss for a moment, contemplating his remark, and the way the ribbed green sweater hugged his body. "On second thought Max is a big girl, she doesn't need her momma hanging around her twenty-four seven. Besides, she might be doing something with Logan that's as sinful as this."

"Yeah and we're Catholic." Rick smiled seductively "Father Destry will forgive us of our lustful transgressions."

"I've got confession in tomorrow, so we'll be cleansed of anything we might do tonight." Lucia shot back, her smile getting as lust filled as his.

Rick grinned like an idiot, but a very turned on idiot. "Damn I love sinning."

Lucia gave a quick laugh. "Yeah me too." She initiated another kiss, pulling back after another ice age came and went. "I really need to go now, I told her I'd go see the nursery. Plus I have to comfort my almost five-year-old grandson on having to share a room with his sister."

"Poor guy, I know how that goes, it's like your independence is lost," Rick said, laughing at that, lost in remembering a childhood memory of having to share his room with two of his four brothers after more room was needed for his sister's nursery. His parents being hard core Cathlolic, birth control wasn't allowed, so he had a rather large family, as did his wife.

"It'll be a great experience for him." Lucia explained. "Kids just seem to grow up better when they have someone to play shadow puppets and tell secrets to at night after bedtime."

"How come we never play shadow puppets at night?" Rick asked, seeming very offended that he hadn't been given that opportunity at bedtime.

"Cause we're usually too busy with other things baby." Lucia reminded with a wag of her eyebrows.

Rick smiled at that. "Oh yeah." The timbre in his voice took on a note of pleasure as he remembered the 'other things'. He offered one last quick kiss on her lips. "Tell Max I said 'hi.'"

"I will," Lucia agreed, pulling back from him and heading to the white front door with the stained glass recessed in its center. She opened it halfway, but then turned back once to face him. "Don't miss me too much."

"Too late." Rick returned, watching her smile before she went out.

FOGLE TOWERS

"Right-" Max began, waiting for a moment until she felt the sensation lightly ripple across her stretched abdomen. "There." Her hands were behind her back, resting on the dip created by the ribcage's connection to the hipbone. She was dressed in a nectarine-colored long sleeved button up top and blue maternity jeans.

Logan was kneeling in front of her with one ear pressed against her enlarged stomach, feeling the movement of the baby underneath her flesh. "Are you sure she's kick boxing?"

"She's been beatin' on my stomach enough in the last few months for me to know when she's workin' out." Max informed him with a hint of a smile on her face. "Think she's about ready to break out of the joint."

"It's really not a bad place to be honey." Logan spoke to his unborn child in his wife's womb. "Free room service, free accommodation. Once you get out in the real world it's all down hill from there."

"Great upbeat pep talk dad." Max said above him. "Why don't you give her a silver piece for a birthday present so she can start defending herself early?"

"Right now she's the only one in this city besides you who isn't packing." Logan stood up and looked Max in the eyes. "But it's not like that leaves you totally defenseless. Some people already have looks that could kill." He shot her a look that let her know he was checking her out.

Max managed a smile. "Only the helpless romantic Logan Cale would hit on a girl nine months pregnant."

"I just call it like it see it sweetheart." Logan rationalized. "And I wouldn't be the first one to appreciate the beauty of a woman's body when she's pregnant."

"Is there some secret pre partum father's course that men take where they learn all about the sex appeal of a women who would otherwise just consider herself a well dressed beached whale?"

"It's what we studied in health class when all the girls were learning how to macramé." Logan deadpanned. Max may have been uncomfortable in her body at the moment, but he found her very beautiful and extremely sexy. She was normally all that to him, but now, she had something of an 'earth mother' quality. "Pregnant women have far more sex appeal then any of those well bred razor-thin supermodels flouncing down the runways."

"I never got that." Max returned. "Here I am, overweight with swollen ankles, and you look at me like you want to jump my bones. But stick any full figured chick out there, and she's invisible to those hungry for feastin' their eyes on flesh."

"It's the fact that you're carrying our child that makes it sexy baby." Logan informed. "At least up until the point where you're lying sweat soaked in a bed and screaming for an Uzi to end the life of the one who wronged you."

"I don't do guns." Max reminded. "I'd just smack you around a little."

"I feel so much better now." Logan returned. "But I think that feeling's about to go away after we have to drag Jessie kicking and screaming out of his old room and into Lexi's."

"It won't be as bad as all that." Max told him. "I shared a room with half a dozen kids and I didn't turn out warped or nothin'."

"Try telling an independent four-year-old that." Logan came back. "And I don't think a military barracks count as a room."

"All I know is I always looked forward to nights when Ben would make shadow puppets on the wall after lights out. We'd all sit around him like it was just some summer camp and we had snuck out of our cabin to go make mischief." Max's lips formed into a small smile, remembering sitting beside Jondy who would make cracks about how Zack resembled the rat Ben was making a shadow of. "It was a way of kinda taking the edge off of the things we did during the day."

Logan watched her eyes change when she mentioned her deceased brother. She wasn't extremely emotional about it, but she wasn't an emotional woman. The simple cloud that cast itself over her eyes was a sadder expression than if she had started sobbing right there in front of him. "You okay?" he asked, even though he knew the answer. That was just the way they did things.

"I'm tryin' to remember all those jokes that me and Jondy made about Zack over the shadows," she paused for a moment. "But mostly I'm just missin' Ben."

Logan put his finger under her chin and raised it up so that she was looking at him at eye level. Without a word he brushed his lips against her forehead, not in sexual hinting or play, but for the pure raw comfort he felt he had to give her at that instant.

"C'mon," Max started to change the subject. The issue of Ben was always raw for her, and would always be there to discuss, just not now. "If your subject is stronger than you it's best to launch a full direct assault as soon as possible."

Logan nodded at her slightly, "You get the tasers I get the handcuffs?"

She laughed quietly. "Soon as you can find those things let me know, I'll be out here in reality town with our children." She turned her head to call for her son. "Jessie-" her voice was one that only a parent possessed, the sonar like quality of someone who could find her child from three miles away. "Jess, come out here."

"No!" Jess's voice echoed from the hallway where he had sealed himself in the nursery that had been fully decorated just that morning. "You want to give my room away!" He peeked out at his parents from the smallest crack behind the mahogany door of his old room.

"I just want to talk to you for a second babe. Please?" Max shifted her voice to a slightly pleading tone so that he might cave in.

Her tone worked. Jessie peeked his head out at her. "You won't try to make me move in with Lexi?" he was now standing in the hallway, staring at Max with one eye peaking out from behind the wall.

Max shook her head in a negative gesture. "I just want to have some words with my boy."

Jessie finally emerged completely into the living room, and slowly stepped over to them. His dark jeans scuffed against his bare feet and his hands were deep inside the pockets of his favorite red zip up hoody.

"Me and daddy were just talkin' about how it's such a shame that your new baby sister has nowhere to sleep when she gets here." As soon as Jessie had come over to her Max started in on him. She knew that ordering him to abandon his room to become the baby's new nursery would never work. This was her son after all, and that kind of talk would certainly have never worked on her. "I mean you can bunk with Lexi, but the baby's too small to sleep with you guys."

Jess looked up at his mother. "Why can't she have Lexi's room?" He looked at her questioningly, and with traces of defiance.

"Because you're the oldest Jess," Logan answered his son's question. "And sometimes the oldest sibling has to give up something for the younger ones."

Max glared at him for a moment at his remark. Logan saw it as innocent, but she was not in favor of someone putting that much of a burden on the oldest child in sacrificing himself for the benefit of the younger brothers and sisters. She had already witnessed its tragic effects with Zack. "Daddy means that it wouldn't be fair to either of you to have a newborn in your room. They cry all the time they don't sleep very well." She knelt down to his level, slowly; since she weighed significantly more then she had in the past. "Plus you don't want your ol' momma coming into your room at all hours of the night to feed her."

"But Lexi's a girl," Jessie complained loudly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"So's mommy," Logan cut in. "And I sleep in the same room as her. It's one of the best arrangements I've ever made."

Max smiled up at him, letting his earlier remark slide, at least until the opportunity came where she could explain a few things to him without their son present. "Think of it as a slumber party every night." Max took Jess's hands and rocked his body back and forth playfully. "No adults allowed, all secret and forted up."

"Like soldiers?" Jessie asked. He was finally getting excited at the prospects of sharing a room with his sister.

"Yeah," Max agreed with a smile, leaning over to give him a kiss on the mouth.

"Mommy-" Jess gave her the best glare he could. He was growing up now, and was reaching that phase where a girl kissing him was icky. Even a kiss from his own mother sent his 'Ick Radar' buzzing.

Max picked up on his underlying meaning. "Sorry, I forgot I got a little man now." She leaned over and kissed him again, on the forehead.

"You're still doing it mommy," Jess complained, trying to pull back.

"Hey I kiss men." Max informed, shooting a glance at Logan. "Ask daddy."

The doorbell outside the apartment rang, resonating through the penthouse.

"That's nana!" Jessie shouted with enthusiasm. "Don't let her in yet, I gotta get my new sword to show her!" He was now into collecting plastic swords that were modeled after real ancient weapons. Zane had started him off it with a replica of an 18th century broadsword for his last birthday. He took off for his new room to get the toy to show his grandmother.

"Some boys collect model cars, my son has a thing for weaponry." Logan shook his head in mock disappointment. He started to go to the door when he noticed Max having a hard time getting back up on her feet.

He fought hard to repress a laugh at her struggling, and offered her a hand to pull her up. "Need some help?" The question was rhetorical since he was already pulling her to her feet.

"Just remember you did this to me so if I were you I'd wipe that smile off my face." Max jerked her hand out of Logan's grip as soon as she was on her feet, and headed towards the front door. She turned the gold knob and opened the front door.

Lucia smiled at her from the hallway. "Hey you." She said, stepping into the foyer of the penthouse. She enveloped Max in a hug. She pulled back after a moment to stare at her daughter's swollen belly. She said: "Look at how big you're getting." Coming from any other person that would have been highly insulting, but coming from Lucia it was a great compliment. She knelt down next to Max's stomach. "Ella es mi nina linda". (There is my beautiful girl.) Ella es muy muy muy linda," (She is very very very beautiful) Lucia punctuated each 'very' with a kiss on Max's stomach. "Ella es tan linda como su mama." (She is as beautiful as her mom).

Normally Max had a problem with people wanting to kiss her stomach. She didn't like the feeling that she wasn't even there while everyone was cooing over the baby growing in HER belly, touching her like she was simply some display case. But with Lucia she let it go. She was just excited at seeing her grandchild en-utero. Men didn't own the category of feeling a lot of emotions at seeing a pregnant woman.

"There's my stud of a son-in-law," Lucia said, grinning as she pulled herself back on her feet and moved to give Logan a hug. She pulled back and saw something in his features that made her grin like she had just been told a really juicy secret. "Such pleasure on your face. You two been trying to help my grandchild come along eh?"

"No more than usual," Logan responded and then kissed her quietly on the cheek.

Lucia's grinned broadened to the level of splitting her face in half. "Max takes after me in that department." She leaned closer to Logan's face and lowered her voice to slightly above a whisper. "We both have the agility of cats in the dark."

"You do know I can hear ya right mom?" Max reminded, crossing her arms just below her recently enlarged cleavage. "Kind of an annoyin' little plus at being revved up."

Lucia turned to her. "I still didn't hear you deny it Max," she informed. She had to stop grinning for a moment because it was hurting her jaw. "So don't try to stick it to me Ms. Thing, cause I'm your momma. And when I say you're having sex you better damn well not disagree with me."

Max laughed quietly to herself. "Should've known better then to put down a master of the sensual arts."

"Got that right honey," Lucia agreed. "I invented Ms. Thang."

"Oh I'm sure of it." Max came back.

"NANA!" Jessie had a voice that carried when he was excited to see his grandmother. His call reached her a good ten seconds before he actually leapt at Lucia.

"Hey baby-ohh-" Lucia groaned just slightly at the boy's weight landing in her arms. She steadied her feet and moved his body further up on hers so she wouldn't drop him. "Whatcha up to?"

"See my sword nana?" Jess asked. He waved the plastic play weapon around like an ancient warrior fighting off a gargoyle.

"It's awesome." Lucia complimented, kissing him on the forehead.

"Isn't it neat?" Jessie now pointed the blade closer to her face, inches away from the bridge of her nose. "Look at the flat side of the blade, people use to chop each other's heads off with it-"

"Wow," Lucia said, trying to hide her disgust at this new information. "Who taught you all this great knowledge?" She shot a 'mother's warning look' at Max.

"Hey don't look at me," Max defended. "I don't do weapons. You'll have to give the evil eye to Zane, mom."

"Zane?" Lucia tested out the name she hadn't heard of yet.

"Yeah," Jessie agreed. His head bobbed up and down excitedly. "Uncle Zane has REAL ones in his car. It's called a Hummer, and he has big guns and bows and arrows!"

Lucia still looked at Max this time for an entirely different reason. "I'm guessing that Zane isn't Logan's brother."

Logan shook his head in agreement and then said: "Every family has its eccentrics. The ones in Max's just happen to fall into that category packing an armory."

"Hey don't rag on her about that Logan," Lucia warned in a pretend mad voice. "'Cause she isn't isolated on that island of relatives with a lust for guns. My uncle George," she spoke the name in the Spanish pronunciation: 'hore-hay'. "He use to sit in the roof on his house with a loaded .22 caliber rifle shooting at cars if they came too close to his chicken farm. Scared my momma to DEATH every time we went to visit him in the summer. She'd scream at him for having a gun around children. And not just a few well placed curse words either, she would curse his brothers, his parents his grandparents, his great grandparents, Columbus for bringing his ancestors to this country." She paused for a moment to rearrange her thoughts and change the subject. "But its really too long of a yarn to unravel right now. So-" she clapped her hands together. "Lets see this fabulous nursery."

"It's my room Nana." Jess tugged at Lucia's shirt. His eyes went huge at they stared up at her.

Lucia tilted her head down to his level and said: "I thought you were moving in with your sister hun." She shot a quick glance up at Max and Logan before continuing: "Grown ups never tell kids this, but sharing a room is awesome. When my brother José and I use to share our room when I was a little girl we would stay up all night telling gross out stories and having jumping contests on the bed."

"But that was a long time ago Nana," Jessie complained loudly.

Lucia coughed in her hand. "Then you should take advice from an ancient supplier of wisdom who could knock out any twenty-three year old in looks." She turned her attention back to Max. "No offense baby." She then went on speaking to Jessie: "Ya know Lexi won't bite you. And you can still have your own space on your half."

"But mommy painted my walls purple!" Jessie whined. "It's so icky. The baby won't like it."

"Really?" Max questioned to her son. "I seem to recall a time when a certain son of mine loved having his walls purple when he was a baby. I think it was even his first word."

"But I was just a little kid then mommy," Jess rationalized. "I'm four now."

Max could see the upset look in his eyes. She said: "This color thing is really botherin' ya huh?"

Jess nodded 'yes'.

"How about we reach an agreement then." Max said, stepping over to her son looking down into his eyes. "You let your soon-to-be-born baby sister have your old room and you get to paint the walls on your half of your new room any color you want."

This intrigued Jessie, and he cocked his head slightly, contemplating it. "Can it be black?"

Max made a face at the idea of going gothic on one wall. "How about dark blue with stars?"

"How many stars?" Jess asked. He was now getting excited.

"How many do you want baby?" Max returned.

"A jillion." Jessie responded.

"I want stars too!" Lexi came out of the hallway clutching at her toy rabbit 'Mr. Whiskers.' She was wearing a burnt orange long sleeved t-shirt and light blue flare jeans. Her feet were clad in black Sketcher lace ups that squeaked ever so slightly on the hardwood floor as she walked over to them.

"No you don't!" Jess informed Lexi, wriggling down from Lucia's arms. He pointed a finger at his sister. "You're not copying me."

"I'm not copying!" Lexi shot back, walking over to Jessie so fast her brown ponytail bobbed up and down like a spring. "I like stars too!"

"You never liked stars!" Jessie shot back.

"Did so!" Lexi snapped. "Mr. Whiskers and I love stars!"

"Mr. Whiskers is a dumb toy!"

"He is not!" Lexi cried.

"Is too!" Jessie returned, snatching the toy from her arms and running around the room.

"Give him back you dink head!" Lexi ordered, chasing him.

"Remind me why I was happy you got me pregnant again?" Max stated to Logan while watching their children go at it over a toy bunny.

"I actually enjoyed the heated passionate moment more than the resulting consequences sweetheart." Logan came back.

"Logan Cale, " Max said in her authoritative soldier voice. "Don't make me kick your ass."

"Oww!" Lexi cried out. She had tripped over a lumpy wrinkle in the Oriental rug on the floor and had fallen face down on the hardwood floor.

"Baby are you okay?" Max reached her daughter as quickly as she could in her condition, trying to see if she was bleeding anywhere.

Jessie had stopped running with the rabbit and stood in front of Lexi. He looked down at her and asked: "Are you okay?"

"No I'm not!" Lexi turned a tear-streaked face at him. "You took my bunny and I banged my knees! I hate you Jessie!" She sobbed again.

"Here." He held out the rabbit for her to take. "Mr. Whiskers likes you more."

Lexi clutched at the toy. She got into a sitting position and hugged the bunny to her body hard. She was still crying, and made no move to get up off the floor.

Jessie knelt down next to her and pulled her to her feet. "Do you still hate me?" His brown eyes looked at her blue ones.

"Yes!" Lexi informed, clutching her bunny to her as tight as she could without the stitches popping out. "Mr. Whiskers hates you too!" She was too upset to realize the impact of her words.

"Tell Mr. Whiskers I'm sorry I made you fall." Jessie said. He was only four years old, but this conversation made him sound so much older. "And you can have a few stars over your bed."

Lexi went silent for a few seconds, turning her head down to the toy rabbit, listening to a response that only she could hear. "He says if you give me a Charlie Brown Band-Aid for my cut-ed elbow we won't hate you anymore."

"Okay," Jessie agreed, turning to his mother. "Can I mommy?"

"I don't see a prob with that baby," Max informed, not being able to hide the smile on her face. "The box is in your drawer." The penthouse's two bathrooms both had the standard child safety locks on the cabinets where they kept medicine and cleaning supplies. But Max had devoted a drawer in the second bathroom for things her two children could use on their own. It housed items like non-toxic no tears-bubble bath, animal shaped body scrub gloves, bath toys, and several boxes of cartoon character bandages for minor cuts that they could take care of themselves.

"Come on," Jessie took Lexi's hand. "We can play Doctor. Mr. Whiskers can be the assistant."

"Okay!" Lexi agreed. She had silently forgiven him for taking away her rabbit and making her fall. She kissed her brother on the nose.

"Eww!" Jessie wiped it off on the arm of his hoodie. "Alexis don't kiss me! That's gross." He only called her 'Alexis' when he was upset with her.

"C'mon!" Lexi grabbed his arm, urging him to the bathroom. "I want the one with Charlie Brown and Snoopy!"

Lucia smiled at her grand children. "Those two are something else." She turned to see Max resting both of her arms on the couch, a pained look on her face. "Honey, are you okay?"

Max nodded, but kept her head, down. "You know that feeling you get when your ankles are about to explode?"

"You should sit down for a few minutes baby." Logan informed. "You may just be saved from self detonation."

"Mom wants to see the nursery, and I'm kinda the tour guide." Max reminded him.

"She can see it after you take a break Max." Logan informed. "You really need to spend less time on your feet."

"I'll spend less time on my feet in the nursery with your mom's rocker. I'll take my load off there."

Logan sighed, realizing he wasn't going to win this argument. "At least let me help you."

"You get the next time Logan." Lucia said stepping over to Max and taking her hand. "Momma's got this one covered." She didn't offer any other support to Max other then a simple handhold because she knew Max could handle walking the thirty feet to the nursery room door. She twisted the gold knob to the room that had once been Jessie's. The door creaked open slowly to reveal deep royal purple walls done in an old world plaster technique. An old wooden crib stood in the middle of the room, changed from the chrome color it had been when Lexi was a baby, a deep cherry staining the original pinewood. Max had bought new white crib linens since the first set had gotten its fair share of use. A mobile of brightly colored butterfly's hung suspended above the crib and underneath it lay all the stuffed animals people had given to her at her shower. The stuffed green army soldier decked out in full battle gear resting at the head of the crib was a present from Zane.

Next to the window sat a white washed changing station and a real cherry wood rocking chair with a cushion resting on its seat.

"Okay babe," Lucia said leading Max over to the rocker "You sit down here while I scope the place out." She pushed her down gently into the seat. After she made sure that Max was comfortable Lucia started to examine the new nursery. "This is really beautiful. I love the color of the walls."

"We had it the same way when Jessie was born. My girl Kendra wanted to do it again." Max returned, rocking back and forth slowly in the rocker. "Figured I owe her one since I gypped her on naming this baby."

Lucia began to examine the top and bottom edges of the walls. "Not a clown border in sight." She proudly stated. "Thank god. Personally I think clowns are freaky and I don't feel the need to subject an innocent baby to them every night." She stepped over the tan and brown braided rug - Kendra and Walter's baby shower present - and stopped in front of a dresser painted just one shade lighter than the walls. Pictures were on display in various in simple black frames on the dresser's top. There was one of Max and Logan taken at their wedding reception, two professionally done black and white photos of Jessie and Lexi taken by Bling. And it the very right corner stood an older photograph outside a two story white Tudor house. A man dressed in a blue sweater and black khakis with piercing blue eyes had his arm around the shoulder of an auburn haired woman. They both looked to be in their middle to late thirties. In front of them were two children; a young girl of fifteen, silky auburn-brown hair that stopped just short of her collarbone. She had both arms wrapped tightly around the second child, a boy of eleven with very familiar blue eyes and light brown hair that was spiked even in those days. The girl's actions looked like she was about to choke her brother, but the grins on their faces suggested otherwise. They all looked so happy in front of their home, a moment captured in time before the Pulse had ever happened.

"Logan's family," Max informed from her seat in the rocker. "That picture was taken before they left for the airport that day." Max didn't go on, because she had already told Lucia of their tragic death when their plane went down.

Lucia didn't take her eyes off the photograph for a moment, staring at the dark haired girl who was pretending to strangle her brother. She said: "His sister was beautiful." She turned around to face Max, a slightly curious but sad look on her face. "What was her name?"

"Marie." Max answered her solemnly. "Marie Alyse. She was fifteen when they took that."

"It's beautiful," Lucia stated of Marie's name. She picked up the photo, examining it for a moment before setting it back down. She turned back around to face Max who had stopped rocking and now sat with both hands resting on her swollen stomach. "I would've loved to meet her." She said and walked back over to where Max was at and knelt down next to her. "But I'll settle on having met you." She leaned over and kissed Max's forehead. "I love the nursery hun. She's gonna be spoiled from the start."

"Mommy, mommy!" Lexi's voice echoed in the hallway, but she didn't come inside the nursery.

"So much for the 'mother-daughter bonding' I was going for." Lucia said in fake disappointment.

Max gave her a small smile before answering her daughter: "What is it baby?"

"Case is here mommy!" Lexi called back.

"Alone?" Max called back, not actually considering that her six-year-old nephew came over to their house by himself.

Her question was answered when Tinga stepped inside the nursery. "I heard that." Tinga shook her head in mock reprimadation. She was wearing a red boat neck sweater; dark blue rinse boot cut jeans and black high-healed boots. "What kind of mom would I be if I let my baby wander here alone?" Tinga asked.

"You don't want me to answer that." Max returned.

"Just wait until you have that baby Maxie," Tinga warned. "The shield will be down." She laughed a little at her remark and stepped over to Max, kissing her on top of her head. "How ya doin' baby sister?"

"Ready to get this show on the road." Max returned.

Tinga smiled and laid her hand on her sister's stomach. "Oh wow." She exclaimed when she felt the movement. "She's definitely ready too." She bent low to Max's belly "Sweetheart, can you say 'full breach'?"

"Can you say 'bite me'?" Max asked of Tinga in a joking voice.

"No, but I can say 'kiss my ass'." Tinga removed her hand from Max's body. Her attention immediately turned towards Lucia, finally noticing the other woman in the room. "Who are you?" Tinga's voice was hostile, protective of her little sister.

"Lucia Weston." Lucia returned. "Max's mom." None of Max's siblings had met the woman. Max had spoken of her existence but Lucia had never actually met any of them.

"Tinga." Tinga replied. It was all the introduction she was willing to give.

"Mom, look what Jessie has!" Case's voice beat his body into the nursery. He was now proudly holding Jess's toy sword. He wielded it in the air like an ancient warrior and then lunged it into the front of his cobalt blue long sleeved T-shirt, gasping at the fake injury the blade created. "Uggh!" Case made the sounds of a dying man, staggering around the nursery about to do a dramatically acted death scene.

/FLASH: "Aghhh!" Tinga dropped down to the mat when the blade of a bayonet sliced through her gray sweatshirt. She grabbed at the wound that now oozed blood; looking up to Max who was holding the rifle the blade was attached too.

Max's body - that had just been in a position of attack - recoiled at seeing the crimson stain flow from Tinga's shoulder. The bayonet lowered from its stance.

"I did not tell you to lower your weapon!" A young drill sergeant dressed in green fatigues screamed at Max. His army issued boots clunked over to where the two X5's were situated. All soldiers were normally told that the reason they practiced on dummies was because the government considered them too valuable to risk injury on them in training maneuvers. Manticore considered this a load of bull. Real life targets would give their soldiers the actual feel of an enemy in combat, so the all X-series practiced on each other.

The drill sergeant got right down in front of Max's face. "You have a downed man at your feet soldier! Now complete the maneuver!"

Max locked her eyes on Tinga, trying to apologize to her without a word before plunging the blade down to her again./

"I'm hit." Case slid onto his knees, pretending to be gasping for breath.

"Baby that's enough!" Tinga ordered, walking over to him and kneeling beside him. She took the sword from his hands, examining how closely it mirrored the image of the real thing. "Where'd you get this?"

"Jessie said Uncle Zane gave it too him as a present." Case replied, looking up to his mom.

Tinga didn't speak for a moment, testing the weight of the blade in her hand. She addressed her son a moment later: "I want to talk to Aunt Max alone for a bit Case okay? Why don't you and Jessie go get yourself a snack from the kitchen?"

"Can I have a cookie?" Case asked, he was almost seven-years-old and was sounding more like his mother everyday.

"Okay," Tinga agreed. "But just one."

"Two," Case said.

"One." Tinga corrected. "No negotiations."

"You're mean mommy." Case told her.

"You're mean too baby," Tinga said in a joking tone, leaning over to kiss Case on the nose. "Move it kiddo." She stood back up on her feet, watching her son and nephew leave the nursery.

Tinga's then sifted back around to face Max once she was sure the children were out of earshot. "Zane's a dead man. Where the hell does he get off handing out personal armories to our babies?" Tinga's voice was enraged at her brother. She didn't harbor a hatred for guns the way Max did, but that didn't mean she was about to let her son or nephew play with weapons, even plastic ones. She had seen too may times what the real thing could do.

"Girl relax," Max tried to calm her sister down. "He probably couldn't find a Speak-N-Spell."

"That's a load of crap Maxie and you know it." Tinga growled back, still highly upset that Zane had given her nephew that kind of toy for a present. "No, that boy's ass is mine."

"Maybe I should just go." Lucia said pointing towards the door. She felt very out of place at the moment.

"You're fine." Tinga reassured the other woman, sitting down on top of the dark cherry wood hope chest that Logan's Aunt Jillian had sent over for a baby shower present. "I just get a little pissed off sometimes." She flipper her braids over her shoulder that had flown to the front during her move to sit down.

"Honey I have brothers myself so I feel you." Lucia reassured her, hoping Max's sister didn't find it offensive that she called her 'honey'. She was the kind of woman who called everyone 'honey'. "The one that's in the Marines made off with my gold hoops for a nose ring before he left for Basic, and he gave them back to me on his leave without even cleaning them off."

Tinga smiled slightly at Lucia's story. Her guard that had been up on full alert upon seeing the woman had gone down some. She didn't trust her completely yet - because after all, she was a paranoid X5 - but she did start to see why Max trusted her. She took a deep breath in before speaking again: "I just can't believe he'd do that after all we've been through."

"Not like he didn't go through it too." Max reminded, pulling herself out of the rocking chair, with some help from Lucia. She walked the few feet over to where Tinga was sitting.

"It was different with us Maxie." Tinga looked up to her. "Zane would have pissed his pants if he had to be female in that place, being forced to interbreed with their brothers." She locked her eyes on Max's stomach when she said this, speaking of the XX5 baby that Max had been inseminated with - that had survived and tried to kill her and Zack. "Sometimes it sucks being a girl."

"Not all the time." Max stated, making a show of placing one hand on her stomach. "It does have a few pluses."

Tinga managed a smile: "Still wanna play Whack-A-Mole on Zane's nuts."

"You're in luck then 'cause I have a mallet you can use." Max returned.

Tinga laughed this time and stood up. She said: "Better go see what kind of mess our boys got into."

"Do we really want to?" Max asked

"It's not a matter of 'want' baby sister." Tinga reminded. "Now get your ass out there."

Max just shook her head at Tinga's drill sergeant remark, stepping out of the nursery and out into the hallway. She could hear the sounds of Jessie and Case before she even reached the kitchen.

"Hey guys," Max said once she spotted them on the kitchen floor with Lexi, an open box of Oreos in between the three of them. "Save some for other Third World Countries."

Jessie looked up to his mother, Oreo crumbs stuck around his lips and some on his jeans. "Want one mommy?"

Max shook her head and said: "No thanks hun, think I've had my cookie quota for the day."

"Definitely," Tinga agreed, putting a hand to Max's stomach. "I mean look at the size of this thing."

Max shoved Tinga into the kitchen with one hand, watching her sister laugh and kneel next to her son. "I thought I told you one Case."

"I did have one mom," Case corrected. "Jessie and Lexi had FIVE each." He dusted the crumbs off his lap and onto the floor.

Lexi stared down at the cookie poised at her mouth. "Mommy?" her voice was somewhat muffled by the cookie bits she already had in her mouth. "Is your tummy really from eating a lot of cookies?"

Before Max had the chance to answer that very unique question the phone in Logan's office rang.

"I got it." Tinga said, claiming the call so Max wouldn't have to walk all that way to answer it. She only had a few more days left of pampering her baby sister and she was going all out. Tinga made it to Logan's computer desk, and grabbed the silver wireless with one hand. "All of our normal operators are busy at the moment, so how may I direct your call?"

"I'm looking for Max," came the reply from the other end, the voice of a woman.

"Max is preoccupied right now, can I take a message?"

"Who is this?"

"I'm her sister who is this?" Tinga responded in a hostile no-nonsense tone.

There was a beat of silence, then someone spoke again: "Tinga?"

"I know who I am okay?" Tinga snapped back.

"Relax its Asha." The woman finally identified herself. "Asha Copeland, I'm dating your brother Zack. You may refer to him as the pain in the ass."

"That pass code is acceptable." Tinga responded, a smile now creeping into her voice.

"Good, cause Zack swiped my lock picking tools. Guess I can tell this to you then, since you're one of Zack's sister's too."

"Girl just spill it," Tinga replied, getting a little annoyed about the way Asha dragged things out.

"Zack's on his way over to Max's."

"Big freakin' deal." Tinga returned. "Was that all?"

"He hacked into some DMV records and got the tag for a Lucia Weston's Ford Escalade and he tracked it heading to Foggle Towers."

"For what purpose?"

"Hell if I know, I just date him not read his mind. My guess is that he wants to have a few choice words with the woman. If this was just a social call he would've gone to Max's and asked her where Lucia lived."

"So this is a warning of some kind?"

"Damn straight." Asha agreed. There was a beat of silence then she continued. "Look, I don't know what the situation was like with your-" she paused, hesitating for a second on the next word. "'Mothers' at Manticore, but Zack seems to express no love lost for these women and you know how obnoxiously hot-headed he can be when he's sitting on something that'll make him go off like a carbon bomb."

"Right." Tinga finally agreed. "Thanks for the heads up." She hung up the phone before Asha could say anything else. She turned to face Max who was looking at her questioningly. "Zack's coming over here, he saw Lucia's car drive up."

Max sat on this for a moment before responding. "Define 'saw'."

"He set up on her car." Tinga answered.

"Excuse me, he what?" Lucia cut in, taking one step closer to Tinga. "You mean to tell me that boy put a tail on my vehicle?" She didn't wait for a response before continuing. "Did he at least go for something high tech like an infrared sensor that can detect the heat of the engine so he can follow me via a base unit in his car? Or was it something more mundane like just hacking into the DMV records and tracing my license number so he could find me on any traffic hover drone?"

Tinga's eyes gave away how impressed she was that Lucia knew all this information about tailing someone.

Lucia saw the look, and offered a response: "You don't barely escape from a covert military base with your life without learning a few tricks along the way." She took a moment and looked at Max. "But I guess if the man went through all that crap to track me down I should at least indulge him."

"Trust me that's not a good idea." Max explained. "Zack's not someone you want to deal with in confrontation."

"Honey I gave birth to you in a forced procedure sedated out of my mind and then spent the next five months of my life in a mental institution for a paranoia disorder. I think I can handle being yelled at by guy who has a rightfully placed chip on his shoulder." Lucia let her know.

"Zack thinks all the chips on his shoulders are rightfully placed." Tinga cut in. "If you give him something to be pissy about he'll take it and run all over it." She kept her eyes on Lucia. "I don't know you at all and I think you shouldn't put yourself in this matter."

"I'm already in this matter Tinga," Lucia said, addressing the woman by her name for the first time since she had arrived. "Max is my daughter. And this Zack can run over this thing forwards, backwards and blindfolded if he wants too, but I'm not gonna be intimidated by him."

Tinga turned to Max, "You sure she didn't raise you?"

Max smiled at that. "What about you?"

Before Tinga could answer, Case was pulling on her jeans. "Mom, I have to use the bathroom."

"Okay baby," Tinga looked down on her son, and took his hand. He was almost seven, but he still wanted someone to stand outside the bathroom while he went. After being forcefully taken away from Tinga when she gave herself up to Manticore, Case had been traumatized and didn't want her to go very far. She looked over to Max. "We'll be right back." She led her son away down the long hall to where the bathroom was located.

"She's great, your sister." Lucia informed after Tinga had left with Case. "How old is her son?"

"He's six." Max informed.

"She married?" Lucia asked. She didn't mean it as a snub; she really wanted to know. Plenty of women had kids without permanent partners.

Max nodded. "His name's Charlie, they've been together for seven years now."

"Well she's fantastic." Lucia stated again, with a smile at Max. "I'd love to meet her husband." She paused before asking the next question, hoping it didn't sound too nosey. "Any of your other siblings permanently hooked up?"

"Tinga and I are the only ones that are married." Max informed her mom. "Krit, Zane and Jondy are all single. Syl has a boyfriend named Craig, and Zack," Max watched Lucia's expression change ever so slightly at the mention of the man's name. "He's dating this girl named Asha, one of Logan's old leg workers."

"Old leg worker huh?" Lucia turned to Logan. "I don't think I have inform you that Max better be the only woman who's doing your leg work now."

"Oh believe me Luc she is," Logan agreed, stepping over to Max and draping a hand across her shoulders. "There's no way to escape the trap once you've been ensnared."

Max elbowed him in the ribs for that remark. "You wanna run that past the momma of your children again?" Her eyes locked on him, challenging him.

"No particularly baby no." Logan responded, trying to hide the smile that was forming over his face. "I'm going to plead the fifth here."

Her eyes adapted a 'say what?' look. "Remind me why I married you?"

Logan answered her question by leaning over to kiss her fully on the mouth.

Max pulled back after a minute. "Oh yeah. I knew there was some sort of reason."

Lucia couldn't help laughing at this. "You two are a trip. Makes me wonder why I didn't marry young."

"You mean younger than nineteen? Max asked.

Lucia turned to her with a smile on her face. "Bless you baby." She had been thirty-five when she married Rick after having dated him for a year and a half. She kissed Max on the forehead.

Lucia's actions were cut short when she heard the sound of the front door being opened. She turned around to see a tall blonde man enter the penthouse without so much as a knock.

"Is this a private party or can anyone crash?" Zack closed the door to the penthouse, keeping a trained eye on Lucia's form beside his sister.

Lucia was not intimidated by the man and turned to face him completely. He was in his middle twenties like Max was well built, and very handsome. His square jaw was currently clenched as he observed the older woman like an enemy in his territory. "I take it you're either a very stupid burglar who uses front doors or Max's brother Zack."

Zack stared Lucia down at that remark, circling her until he stood between her and Max. "And who the hell are you?" The hostile tone in his voice would've landed him a job as any Mafia ring's hired goon.

"I'm Lucia," Lucia introduced herself, although not politely. She could tell that this was a man who didn't care about the politeness of someone he already didn't like. "I'm Max's mom."

At the word 'mom' Zack adapted a look that would have also been produced if someone had told him his dick were made of stick candy. "You gotta be shittin' me lady." Zack growled again. His jaw seemed to remain clenched even when he spoke. "You expect me to believe that surrogating a baby you knew nothing about and selling her off to genetic dismemberment for cash money qualifies you as her mom?" He had locked his hand around her neck and applied deadly pressure.

"That's enough!" Max grabbed Zack's arm and yanked him off of Lucia. She turned to Zack, eyes on fire. "What the hell are you doin'?" She was more then pissed off now. "You wanna take out aggression you get a piniata, but you don't touch her again or I'm gonna re-arrange your junk into a Christmas bow understand?"

Lucia coughed and was about to do something pissy to Zack, like bitch slap him, but Lexi had chosen that moment to come out of the bathroom - a new Charlie Brown and Snoopy bandage on her arm - carrying a piece of white construction paper.

"Uncle Zack Uncle Zack!" Lexi's voice reached Zack's ears from where she stood beside him yanking on his jeans. "Look at the picture I made for the baby!" She exclaimed this, and held out a crayoned picture of a pink smiling stick figure baby sleeping in a crib.

Zack looked down at Lexi, actually interested in the picture she had drawn.

Once Lexi saw that her statement intrigued Zack she went on: "I'm going to hang it in the nursery, Zack knelt down to Lexi's level while she was still talking. "Right above the crib so she can look at it."

Zack inspected the drawing like it was a battle plan. "It's first rate work," he finally concluded, handing it back to her.

Lexi stared down at her drawing in confusion, then looked back to Zack. "What's 'first rate' mean Uncle Zack?"

"Means it's good," Zack clarified to the girl.

Lexi plastered a huge smile on her small face. "Really?"

"Defiantly." Zack agreed.

Lexi stepped over to him and put her hands on either side of his face and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Uncle Zack."

"C'mon kid," Zack reached over and scooped up his niece, standing with her in his arms a second later. "Show me where it's gonna go." He bypassed Lucia and carried Lexi off back down the hallway to the nursery.

Lucia was stunned at the attitude change that had just come over Zack. It wasn't a complete transformation. But the man who had just tried to crush her windpipe did not seem to be the same person as the man she just saw carrying her granddaughter to see the display area of her crayoned masterpiece.

"I'm sorry," Max finally said something.

Lucia didn't say anything for a moment, feeling the slight raw spot that had formed under her neck from Zack. "Does he have any kids?"

Max shook her head 'no' and replied: "Zack's never been a family oriented guy. He sees it as a point of weakness so that kinda offsets any procreation plans."

"Too bad," Lucia went on. "He seems great with them."

"You seem to be changing gears quite easily about a man who just tried to cut off your air circulation." Tinga stated.

"Kids are very perceptive Tinga," Lucia said to her son-in-law. "They don't pretend to like someone if it isn't true. That means there's something in Zack to like."

"Too bad he hides it under that ass he wears for a face." Tinga added her two cents.

"Think I'll go wipe it off." Max informed. She turned and headed down the hallway stopping at the nursery door that was standing ajar. She could hear her daughter's voice inside talking to Zack.

"Do you think the new baby will like me?" Lexi turned her head when she heard Max open the door. She exclaimed: "Mommy, Uncle Zack helped me hang my drawing!" She pointed at the head of the crib where her picture was securely held to the wall by scotch tape. Zack turned to face Max as well, with an unreadable expression on his face.

"It's awesome," Max agreed with a smile. "Sweetie, can you go play with your brother and cousin? I'd like to have some words with Uncle Zack."

Lexi nodded, "Those boys better not be having fun without me." She walked out of the room and Max kissed the top of her head on the way out, shutting the door behind her daughter. She turned back around a second later to face Zack who stood next to the changing table.

"She's just like her mom." Zack got out, leaning against the mahogany piece of baby furniture. "Everything about her is screaming all about you."

"Yeah well her features aren't gonna be screaming as nearly as much as me." Max hissed in return.

"If this is about Lucia-"

"You know damn well it's about Lucia Zack!" Max spat. "I don't know what your deal is with her, but I suggest you drop it because she's my mom-"

"C'mon Maxie, you don't honestly believe this woman has a single fiber of maternal instinct in her!" Zack growled. "She was just a tool Manticore paid off to drop out uber soldiers. How the hell can you just let that slide and starting call her 'momma?'"

"Not everything that comes out of Manticore is the devil incarnate. " Max spat back, using the exact same words Logan had used on her about Dr. Vertes all those years ago. "She tried to escape but the guards tied her down and induced labor so she had no choice in the matter of where I would be born."

"Poor baby, she had to just give birth in a room where the rest of us had our fucking arms and legs broken every two months!" Zack pitched a glass figurine of a shepherdess - a present from Logan's cousin-in-law Marianne - at the opposite wall causing it to shatter into a hundred tiny shards on the floor.

"If you want to play the blame game Zack you should fault the Manticore employees who sawed at our bones, made us attack each other in armed Battle Royal combat and forced us to watch our sister burn down to ashes as part of reprobation punishment. But you sure as hell don't pin the blame on a woman nine months pregnant who tried her damnest to escape out of a top security base in the dead of night!"

Zack raked hand through his ear length blonde hair in agitation, then looked back to Max, taking in her swollen stomach. "I warned you about getting involved in phony sentiment Max."

"Yeah well I decided to take my chances anyway." Max returned venomously. "I may be the one married and having a third kid, but I seem to recall that my anti-sentimental brother found himself an exclusive girlfriend a while back. " Max waited for Zack to say something, anything, but he just stared her down.

Finally after a long moment, he spoke again: "You better hope you know what you're getting yourself into Maxie. Because you're an exposed vulnerability until that kid is born."

"What's the change?" Max retorted angrily "I thought you always considered me an exposed vulnerability."

Zack shoved past her to the door, not making any contact with her body this time. "Good luck with the labor." He went out the door and slammed it shut.

Max still stood in the middle of the room after he left, glancing for a moment at the shattered pieces of the shepherdess figurine before turning her attention back to the door Zack had just slammed.

CRASH

7:45 PM

From her stool, Asha observed Zack circling the rim of his shot glass with his index finger for the fifth time. "If I'd a known you were just going to play with it I wouldn't have offered to pick up the tab." Her arms rested inches from his body, supporting her shoulders and torso.

Zack shot her a warning look and down the entire shot of Bourbon in one movement, slamming the shot glass back down on the bar top.

Asha looked back down at the rum and coke she had been nursing for the past half hour. Most of the ice had already melted down into the dark soda, sufficiently watering down the drink. Her hand - attached to a bare arm revealed by a pink tank top - lowered onto Zack's arm hidden under his leather jacket. "I guess now would be a good a time as any to tell you that I'm pregnant with Krit's baby."

Zack yanked himself out of her grip and hissed: "I'm not in the mood for your pathetic B.Sin' for jokes." He took half a swig from the drink the bartender had just laid in front of him.

"Cut the crap Zack," Asha threw back in return. "I'm just tired of spending the whole goddamn night talking to myself." She stood up,reached into the back pocket of her low rider jeans for her wallet, and pulled out enough to cover the drinks. "I'm gonna go shoot some pool." She smacked the money down on the counter and turned her attention up to the bartender with beach blonde hair, clad in a green Hawaiian shirt. "Just make sure he's still breathing when I get back," she ordered to the man before stepping down of the risen bar. She headed down towards the wooden pool table that sat in a corner of Crash.

Alec - beer in hand - observed Asha leaving the bar, not hiding his roaming look over the way her ass fit into her jeans. He stopped looking at her after a minute and set his beer mug next to Zack. "Trouble with your woman?"

Zack didn't even acknowledge Alec's presence, once again playing with the rim of his shot glass.

Alec observed his actions. He said: "You know if you do that long enough you can play a tune." Alec downed a healthy amount of his beer and licked the foam off his top lip. "So how's little sister Maxie doin'? Hear she's about to drop that kid any day now. What's this, number eighteen?" He paused briefly to smirk at his own joke. "Can't she and Logan keep their hands off each other for five seconds?"

Zack finally threw back his second drink in a kind of silent response to Alec's implication about the way his sister and her husband rivaled rabbits in offspring number. He then turned to Alec with a domineering expression, which was not the least bit affected by the straight Bourbon rounds he had just slammed back. He said: "I'm not your confidant Alec." Zack stared down the other X5 with a look that dubbed him as the inferior party. "That's the kind of thing that goes on between women who can't keep their damn mouths shut."

"Did you just call me a chick Zackie Boy?" Alec snapped back, the hostility starting to pour out of him. He was not Zack's buddy and had no problems broadcasting that fact.

"Put on a dress and then you tell me," Zack shot back. His eyes narrowed on Alec's face like he wanted to rip his jugular from his neck.

"Dig one of yours out of the closet and you got a deal," Alec replied.

"Okay girls," Lucia's voice suddenly emerged from behind Zack. Her figure - decked out in her black pinstriped business work suit - stepped in between the two men who were three seconds away from gouging each other's hearts out. Lucia looked to Alec first and then Zack. "I don't think you should share fashion tips anymore, cause believe me a dress would do nothing for either of you." She glanced once again at each of the two men when both of them made no kind of reply to her slam, and she also felt their eyes on her like she had just crossed into enemy territory. "Mamacita just got off an eight hour shift boys and she needs a break." Lucia said, referring to herself in the third person. "So I suggest you do one of two things: Either kiss and make up like proper young ladies, or back off and give me my space so I can get myself a drink." She didn't wait for a response from the younger men and shoved past them to stand at the edge of the bar. "Tequila with lime straight up." She made her alcohol request to the bartender. "But no umbrellas, it's too late at night to try to go Club Med in Seattle."

Alec was impressed at Lucia's straightforward attitude and also by the way she filled out in her suit. He had only seen her one other time before, but he found her incredibly alluring, although her age was a mystery to him. She had a figure that rivaled-twenty something voluptuous beauties everywhere but she still wasn't a young fresh-faced kid

Lucia caught sight of the way Alec was eying her and she turned her chocolate brown eyes to him. "You shouldn't cock a gun prematurely solider boy," Lucia stated matter-of-factly about the banana in Alec's pants. She definitely remembered the young man from the police surveillance van, an X5, judging by his age, and the fact that Max had told her who he was. She picked up the drink that the bartender had just set in front of her and took a slow sip, forgoing the tiny straw sitting in the drink. She relished the taste of lime and tequila on her tongue before taking a longer, less savoring hit from the glass. "I'm already packing," Lucia held up her hand to Alec to let him see the gold wedding band clasped around her ring finger.

Alec shrugged after seeing the ring. "Can't blame a guy for tryin'" He offered Lucia a quick seductive smile and went in search of another conquest, and soon his eyes settled squarely on Asha, who was leaning over the pool table about to take her shot. "Excuse me," Alec got up, never taking his eyes off of Asha's cleavage.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Zack whirled on Lucia as soon as had Alec left.

"The last time I checked this was a public bar honey," Lucia's hiss was evident in her eyes as well as her voice. She took another hit from her Tequila to cool down her rage before she wound up launching a verbal assault that would even make this hard ass X5 super warrior blush. She swallowed deliberately slow and then said: "I don't care what genes you got spliced with or how much ass you can kick, because you can have a problem with my status as 'momma' all you want too, but I'm a grown woman Zack. I'm allowed to go anywhere I damn well please." She chugged down the remainder of her drink like she was a sorority sister at an all night Kegger Party. She didn't care if the X5 man wanted to disembowel her right where she was standing, she wasn't about to take his crap.

"Tell me something I don't know," Zack retorted. He crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to assert a kind of dominance over Lucia by revealing his broad toned muscles.

"Are all X5 males this arrogant, or is it just you?" snapped Lucia, practically spitting in his face.

"Arrogance is an acquired response; bitchiness is inherited at birth." Zack returned in the constantly fluctuating voice he always used when he was pissed off.

"So is being a prick." Lucia was in this game to win.

"What do you want me to say?" Zack asked, not actually seeking Lucia's advice, but rather saying out of disbelief that the woman didn't get it. "I'm suppose to be happy that the woman who sold off Maxie to the Mengele Lab is trying to rectify things twenty-two fuckin' years after it would do any good?"

"Am I interrupting something?" Asha's soft, medium pitched voice cut through the thick blood lust tension. Playing pool for her had been unsuccessful, mainly because Alec kept trying to pick her up at every turn. So she had come to make sure Zack wasn't plastered all over the floor in an alcoholic stupor. Lucia's presence sent her red flags blazing at first, because no woman was thinking she could get Zack on the side for a little free action while she was still breathing. But when she walked across the floor to the bar she could see Zack and the mystery woman engaged in a spit fire argument and her plans for bitch slaps and ass kicking were thrown out the window. "I could come back later if you two want to be alone."

Zack shot Asha a look that could only be described as one that stated: 'back off woman.' He was a good three inches taller then her and this height advantage gave him a source of dominance over a situation he wanted to keep in control.

Asha however didn't take to the chauvinistic caveman bull that Zack felt he had to throw around in order to prove his balls weren't meant to play tennis with. Zack didn't appear to be drunk; he was still lucid, and still completely vertical. But then again he was Manticore and he could be one shot away from total brain cell death from alcohol poisoning and be able to withstand it up until the last second where he couldn't remember how to breathe. "If you're wasted, you ride with me."

"I don't think I asked you about what I need Asha," Zack growled, focusing his attention on her and away from Lucia for the time being. The 'time being' meaning him wanting to have a few words with is girlfriend for being a smart ass.

"I don't think I give a damn," Asha snapped back. "The last thing I need is to have to peel you off the sidewalk for trying to pull a straight line stunt while you're drunk off your ass."

"Are you finished?" Zack snapped.

Asha glowered at him. She hissed: "You just better be damn lucky the sex keeps me satisfied, otherwise you'd be in a world of shit Zack." She was looking at him in a warning that if he kept up his crap she would make sex as available to him as ice in the Sahara Desert.

Zack didn't say anything for a long moment. He wasn't a man to give in, even to his girlfriend, with fake apologies or even sincere ones just to smooth out the tension between them. "The pussy never wanders far from its owner." He brushed past her without so much as a glance, heading towards the crumbling stairs that lead to the exit of Crash.

Lucia watched Zack's retreating figure with the attention of a sculptor examining the contours and dimensions of her nude model. She turned to the younger blonde woman standing beside her, someone she had never met, but now shared a common bond with. "Girlfriend?"

Asha turned her head to face Lucia, taking in the Hispanic woman's slim figure and soulful dark brown eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm that." A long, almost painful pause. "Zack's not roses and hand holds."

"I gathered that from the whole shouting and cussing deal." Lucia returned. She waited a moment before she spoke again, choosing her words carefully,"He doesn't seem like the kind of man with a love connection. He seems more like the brooding loner type to me."

"You got brooding right," Asha agreed, not even caring anymore that she was sharing her thoughts with a stranger who she had just been about to lay out because she had originally thought she was trying to feel up her boyfriend. "It's kind of a two faced deal, but his moodiness is one of the things that attracts me to him. Believe me, he's not the kind of man you want going all sappy sentimental." She turned to Lucia then, dropping the convention of being polite to strangers for a moment. "Who are you?"

Lucia took a second to shake off the sting of Asha verbally smacking her in the face then replied: "I'm Max's mother." A pause. "So how long have you two been together?" She effectively changed the subject.

Lucia's first statement raised both of Asha's eyebrows way above their natural position, but she didn't comment on it and instead answered her second question: "Almost three years now. I didn't expect to shack up with him, I actually came by to see Logan."

It was Lucia's turn to raise her eyebrows, wondering why this woman would want to visit her son-in-law, because of that whole deal about hitting on married men.

Asha could see the question that Lucia was either too polite or too enraged to ask looming behind her dark brown eyes. "Logan and I dated for about six months before he met Max, but we mutually dumped one other after it never went anywhere." She could see that this bit of information had cleared the air with her former lover's mother-in-law. "I met Zack at the hospital when Max's son had that accident."

"I'm sure it was romantic," Lucia returned.

Asha smiled her first smile for the evening, not knowing what else to say to the woman, not knowing what else would be appropriate. She couldn't very well start off her next sentence with. 'So selling your baby to Manticore, how was that like?'

Lucia could sense the awkwardness that hung in the air, and didn't want to make Zack's girlfriend any more uncomfortable than she already was. "Damn, it must be getting late." She checked her silver link Geneva watch. "I promised my husband I'd be home early to cook arroz con el pollo. He says he can't live without it, wonder why doesn't he just divorce me and marry a chicken?" She offered a smile at Asha. "I'd say it was lovely to meet you, but we're not two old ladies having tea, so I'll just say thanks for the company, and see ya around." She paid for her drink and left the bar to head out the front door to go home leaving Asha standing there to contemplate things.

FOGLE TOWERS

10: 35 PM

Logan carried a wooden tray - containing two baby blue ceramic mugs, one filled with coffee and the other with steeped Chamomile Tea - over to the mahogany carved square coffee table, setting the entire tray on the surface as gently as if it were his own baby. He picked up the mug containing the tea and handed it to Max who was leaning back into the leather cushions in his worn gray Kyoto Lakers T-Shirt and black pajama bottoms, bare feet pulled up beside her on the couch.

"Backache any better?" he asked, passing her the steaming mug, making sure she had a firm grasp on it before taking his hand away.

"If by better you mean I get an one hour break from it before it starts up again then yeah it's better." Max inhaled the steam from her mug, her face taking on a look of disgust when she recognised the smell. "Ugh. Don't tell me you opened up the homeopathic remedies book again?" She had never been a fan of herbal tea.

"It's Chamomile Max, it's a herb known throughout the world to help ease tense muscles and relax you."

"I know what it is Logan, but the history lesson doesn't make it taste any better." She took a small microscopic sip from the mug and made the same repulsed face as she had before. "I know you're tryin' to help me out baby, but it's just too damn sweet." She leaned over and set her mug back down on the tray that was sitting on the coffee table, then looked back up to him. "How bout you just play magic fingers down my back to get rid of the kinks? It's much more potent than Chamomile." She was now shooting him a look that was either begging or seductive depending on the way he wanted to perceive it.

"I think that can be arranged." Logan pushed the tray to one side of the coffee table and shifted a stack of magazines to the same corner the tray went. "C'mere." He took her right hand and pulled her to her feet.

Max sat on the edge of the coffee table while Logan stood behind her. "You sure this isn't gonna bust the table?" She threw over her shoulder.

"I'll buy a new one, " Logan informed, as he placed his hands on his wife's lower back and began to work the muscles there like he was kneading dough.

Max dipped her head, and a low cat like purr emitted from her mouth. "You know you're really good at this. Ever think about opening up your own parlor?"

"Never really gave it much thought," Logan answered, working the ache out of the tendons in the small of her back. "Besides if I did that I wouldn't have any time for the private circuit." He flinched when he heard her yelp. "Did I hurt you?"

"You just unearthed a gold mine right there," Max got out in-between the pain and what her husband was doing to relieve it. She arched her back for a moment, but then relaxed again after the ache had dulled under Logan's hands. "You think I was wrong for accepting Lucia so quickly?"

Her change of subject was sudden, but Logan had been anticipating this all day so he wasn't without a response. "She's a good woman. You only accepted what was already there."

"Yeah but maybe Zack's right. She never even tried to find me until ten years later."

"She was put in a mental institution right after they delivered you! When would she have had time to check back at the Manticore Nursery to check the status of her infant daughter?"

Max wanted to argue with him, but she couldn't think of anything that would make a good point. "Sometimes it's just hard to believe that a woman who had originally carried me for the dollar decided to become a heroic Manticore escapee."

"I could say the same thing about you." Logan reminded, moving his hands higher on her back, working the muscles in between her shoulder blades. "But that would hold as much credibility as Zack's views on your mom." A pause. "I know he's your brother, but that doesn't give him the right to decide your life for you."

"If he'd a done that we wouldn't be having this kid right now."

"Yes we would Max. Except Zack would be drugged with Rhino tranquilizers and stuffed into the hatch of my Aztec during the entire birthing process."

Max sucked in her breath again, this time not for a tense spot Logan found on her back, but rather for a pang that ripped across her abdomen. "Damn," she rubbed one hand over the bulging expanse of her pregnant stomach.

"Max-" Logan stopped massaging and stepped around to the front of the coffee table to look her in the eye. He saw her rubbing her belly. "That was a contraction wasn't it?"

"No." Max returned. "Just a small bit of pain." She stopped massaging her stomach and laid her hand at its side. "It's Braxton-Hicks, I'm not due for twelve days."

"I don't think the baby cares if she follows your timetable sweetheart." Logan notified.

"Baby, I've had two other kids before this one remember? I think I'd know if I'm going into labor." When she was pregnant with Lexi she had gone to Seattle Mercy three days early because of Braxton-Hicks and Dr. Janston sent them home, and also reminded Logan that the ambulance bay was for ambulances only.

"I think we should call Dr. Janston just in case."

"For what Logan, to alert her that I'm having a baby? She already knows that. And even if these are actual labor contractions, which they're not, I've only had one and that doesn't warrant I start pushing this kid out."

"I'm calling her anyway." Logan informed. "This is our third child Max, by the time you realize you're in active labor you'll wind up giving birth in the kitchen and I just waxed the floors." He kidded her to lighten the mood. He walked over to the pine table behind the couch and picked up the black cordless phone from its charger and dialed Dr. Janston's office.

"Mommy?" Jessie came into the living room in his forest camo pajamas bleary eyed, and half asleep. He stopped right in front of Max.

"Sorry Jess," Max apologized. "Did we wake you up?"

"I was in the bathroom." Jess returned matter-of-factly. He looked down to his mother's stomach. "Is it time for you to have the baby now?"

Max shook her head. "Not yet kiddo." She grabbed him and pulled him into what was left of her lap, kissing him on the head.

Jessie didn't believe her, looking over at Logan. "Then who's daddy calling?"

"His stock broker." Max answered back, watching Logan shoot her a look and then hang up the phone.

"She said if you start having contractions ten minutes apart you should come in." Logan stated the information Dr. Janston - who he had just caught leaving her office to head home - had given him over the phone.

Max reached down and covered Jessie's ears with both her hands. "No shit Sherlock, I could've told you that right to your face instead of over the phone." She removed her hands from her son's ears. She knew it wasn't any better that he hadn't heard her curse, because she had still cussed in front of him, but it was better then telling him to leave so she could reprimand Logan.

"Are we playing a game mommy?" Jessie looked at her inquisitively, not understanding why she had covered his ears.

"Yeah baby," Max moved her head around to the side of his face and kissed his nose. "It's called kiss momma and daddy and go back to bed."

"Is that a real game mommy?" asked Jessie.

"I'll tell you all about in the morning hun, but right now you need to get some more sleep okay?" She set his feet on the floor. "Go kiss daddy and say goodnight."

Jess walked over to Logan and looked sky high into his blue eyes. "Goodnight daddy,"

Logan bent down to the boy's level and kissed him soundly on the forehead. "Goodnight Jess, sleep well."

"Wake me up if the baby wants to be born tonight okay daddy?" Jess asked in instance to Logan.

"I will sweetheart," Logan answered with a smile at his son's insistence.

Jessie was satisfied with his father's remark and headed back into the room he now shared with Lexi. A small, yellow, moon-shaped night-light was plugged into the outlet by a pinewood dresser illuminating the darkened corners of the room where any monsters might be hiding.

Jessie crawled back beneath a comforter and sheets that matched his pajamas. He had just gotten in a comfortable position with one arm tucked underneath his pillow when Lexi popped her head up from the opposite bed.

Her dark red comforter - complete with Japanese charactered proverbs, a present from Kendra - was bunched up around her body like an old woman's saggy skin. "Is mommy gonna have Lucy?"

Jessie sat up in his bed and looked over at his sister in the half-light. "No. Daddy's was calling his stock broker."

"What's that?" Lexi asked.

"A man who helps daddy pick out stocks he think would be a good investment for his money. He buy's them for daddy and then tells him when they've increased in value." Jessie's answer was so precise that any adult would be impressed at the four-year-old's grasp on economics, but Lexi was the only one there, and she was just impressed by his use of big words. "But daddy's wasn't really calling his broker."

"He wasn't?"

Jessie shook his head 'no' in the same fashion his mother had done to him in the living room. "Mommy's gonna have Lucy soon and daddy's just worried."

"Does having a baby hurt?" Lexi asked, now holding on tightly to Mr. Whiskers who she had set in her lap.

"How should I know?" Jess returned. "I'm not having Lucy." He was getting as cynical as his mother. He laid back down, not indulging his sister in answering anymore of her curious questions.

Lexi 'hmphed' under her breath and laid back down on her right side, tucking Mr. Whiskers under one arm and closed her eyes.

FENTAL AVE

Asha's eyes opened in the dark, wondering for a moment what had woken her up from her 'dead-to-the-world' slumber. She decided to sit up, the gray spaghetti strap from her tank top falling off from its position on her shoulder as she did so. Eleven o' clock was early for her to be in bed but she had been up until five am the previous night working on a bust with the S1W and spent the better part of the night busting half of the members out of jail for trying to take back the 'illegal food supply' the Sector Cops confiscated from the slum dwellers.

She stared out into the dark from her bed and finally smelt, rather then heard Zack in her bedroom. She reached over to switch on her brass bedside lamp but a hand stopped her.

"Zack." Asha took back her arm. "Are you drunk?" She could still smell the booze on his breath from Crash and wondered how many more he had added to the mixture. "Cause if you are there's no way in hell you're getting in my bed."

Zack didn't say anything, and in the dark she felt him sliding the other strap off her shoulder, leaving his warm hand on the dip her shoulder made where it connected with her collarbone. "You know things will go smoother if you shut up." He placed his other hand on her opposite shoulder and pulled the tank top completely off of her.

Asha didn't object to his actions, just sat there watching him like a teenager on her first time. Being her pajama top he had just slid off she wore no bra underneath. She felt the slight chill from the night air on her exposed breasts, but she made no move to cover them.

Zack sat on the edge of her bed for a long time, observing the way her breasts moved every time she breathed. He cupped one breast in his hand and watched her suck in her breath and pull her head back at the feeling his hand on her body produced.

"I don't want to be the only nudist here Zack," Asha tilted her head back up to face him. She fumbled in the dark for a moment to lift his sweater over his head but he soon became impatient with her slowness and did it himself, throwing the blue sweater on the floor.

Asha admired the lean and broad muscle of his chest, letting one hand wander along his rock-hard pecks. "No foreplay tonight soldier. Just get on with the Full Breach."

Zack didn't want to admit out loud how much her statement had just turned him on. So he showed her, launching at her with a hard kiss, pinning her down to her top mattress with his weight.

Asha pulled back from the steamy kiss, gasping for air. Zack may have been able to hold his breath for extended periods of time but she needed to breathe. She looked up at him in the darkness, not seeing his face but knowing that he was doing the same. "If this is a plastered screw I'm gonna kick your ass in the morning."

Her remark didn't faze Zack, who began playing the inner thigh of her right leg like a violin. "Not like I'll be here anyway."

Asha closed her eyes at that statement. Zack would never hang around after they had sex. She never woke up wrapped around his body, warm and naked. He would be gone when she opened her eyes, the spot he had collapsed on after 'straining himself' would have no trace of body heat. The only thing she would sometimes find to even signify that a man had indeed spent the night in her bed was a trace of semen that had spilled out onto the sheets. Asha often wondered what it would have been like if she was with the kind of man who made a big fuss over things and referred to sex as 'lovemaking'. But then again, she was dating an X5 soldier, not a lover in a soap opera. "Shut up and let's go." Asha ordered watching him in the dark. Zack didn't do love making, he did sex, hard-core sex, and she didn't have any objections when he did.

She felt him spread her legs apart with his hands and waited for the inevitable earth shattering sensations to ripple through her body when he entered her. She was not disappointed and slammed her eyes shut and gripped her mattress so tightly that she was sure she would tear holes in it.

She didn't say his name; just kept her head tilted back riding out her long climax. X5 were created with amazing inhuman stamina, and it didn't only just apply to the battlefield. Finally, when her muscles could no longer spasm at the sensation he pulled out of her and landed, not on top of her, but beside her on the bed, panting in the dark at his exertion.

Asha took a long moment to catch her breath, feeling like she had just won a marathon, but with much greater rewards. She lay there too exhausted to do anything but roll over on her side and stretch one hand lazily across his collarbone, caressing the hard bone underneath the sheath of peach colored flesh. Zack made no move to cuddle her to him in return, just turned his head to her and took in her naked, sweat-soaked body beside his, watching as she started to fall asleep under his gaze.

Only after her eyes had closed did he venture a lone hand out to remove a chunk of hair that had been plastered to her face.

WESTON RESIDENCE

10: 35 AM

Lucia stood by the bay window that had been recessed right above the kitchen sink where she was currently scrapping the frying pan clean she had just finished cooking eggs benedict on. Today was her day off and Rick didn't have to be into the construction site until one, so she wanted to make him a nicer breakfast than the rushed coffee, toast and cereal he usually had. The Proctor Silex coffee pot sputtered on beside her brewing two cups of Midnight Espresso her brother had sent her from his Tour of Duty in Italy.

"Hey hun," Rick's voice tickled her ear when he came up right behind her to kiss her low on the nape of her neck. "What's all this? You hire a maid?"

Lucia slapped him in the ass with the rubber spatula for his remark. "You better sit down and eat my eggs before I get you hot in the pants in a more painful food wearing way."

"Ouch." Rick cringed at the thought of his breakfast winding up in his lap. "I'm really not that hungry-" He saw the death look in her eyes that said 'i've just spent all my time in the kitchen cooking for you and you sure as hell better start appreciating it'. "But since you went through all this trouble I could be cajoled into a egg culinary creation."

"Right answer," Lucia returned, setting the now clean pan in the wooden drain board beside the sink. The chenille curtains that hung above the bay window blew violently against Lucia's face and she had to pull them away and shut the window that had been partially open.

Rick leaned over and observed the dark clouds that were hanging- like a pile of dirty cotton balls - in vast amounts in the sky. The wind that had blown inside was much warmer than it had been the previous day, signaling a violent shift in the weather.

"Baby I don't like the looks of those clouds." Rick said, turning to his wife. "Looks like a hell of a storm's coming in off the water, we better bring the dogs inside."

"I'll get them." Lucia said, "But you have to promise to sit here and enjoy every bit of those eggs I cooked, 'cause if you don't I'm bringing the girls in and throwing you out

"Yes Ma'am," Rick saluted her, stealing a kiss before she got angry. "I want coffee first though, you want some?"

"Pour me a cup, black, two sugars." Lucia answered before heading out of the kitchen. She walked down the Wainscoting paneled hallway beside the stairs that led to the second story of the house. The hallway itself was lined with photos of Rick's family, their wedding, her brother's Marine headshot and a gold-framed photo of their dogs, with the words 'Mommy and Daddy's Scoundrels' engraved across the bottom.

She pushed open the back door that had nine small glass windows set into it and looked out into their small chain link fenced in eight square foot yard. The two huskies had been sleeping on top of each other next to their yellow and white thatched roof doghouse, but their ears pricked up at the sound of the door opening.

They leapt up and bounded their way over to Lucia, Kira knocking over her sister to get there first.

"That's my good babies," Lucia pet them when the jumped on her and slobbered all over her face. "We need to go inside it's gonna get nasty out here." She held the door open for both dogs to enter. "C'mon girls." The dogs bounded ahead of her and nearly collided into the white Maytag washing machine that sat ten feet away from the door. "You two want food?" They jumped on her excitedly at hearing the word 'food'. Lucia took their silver doggie dishes from off the top of the refrigerator and poured equal amounts of dry Kibbles-N-Bits into each bowl.

Kira and Abby sat patiently wagging their tails watching each morsel of food go into their bowls, and as soon as Lucia set the bowls on the floor they attacked it, spilling kibble everywhere in their haste.

"Slow down speed racers," Lucia ran her hands through their silky coats, smiling at their eagerness.

"You look so cute when you play with the kids," Rick now stood in the door-less entryway, watching his wife's interaction with their dogs. She would've made a great mother, but she already was a mother. It was just hard for Rick to take in that she had a daughter she had never even seen grow up. "Coffee's done," he handed her a steaming mug, not saying anything about his thoughts out loud.

"Thanks," Lucia took it from him and took a slow sip of the robust liquid. "You have a few more hours until you have to clock in, why don't you help me put away the girls' toys? They're liable to become projectiles in the storm."

"Okay," Rick agreed. Something else was hanging on his tongue, and he debated on whether or not he should actually say it. Finally he decided: "Too bad we can't say it was a flying toy that did that to you." He took two steps closer so that he was standing directly in front of her. His fingers brushed against the bruising on her neck that Zack's hands had raised the day before. "Who does that bastard think he is anyway?" Rick's voice was extremely protective and pissed off.

"He's Max's brother Rick," Lucia reminded, taking his hands off of her bruising because it was starting to hurt. "You can't expect him to welcome with open arms the woman who basically gave his sister away over to a group of mad scientists."

"She wouldn't even be his sister if it wasn't for you!" Rick informed hatefully, not at her, but at Zack.

"Yes she would baby. All of the babies were spliced in a lab from the stored ova of donor women and they were enhanced with the same basic batch of base pair DNA. If I hadn't been chosen for the program they would've just gotten some other surrogate to carry Max to term but she would still be related to Zack."

"That still doesn't excuse this Zack going caveman on your neck Luc!"

"You don't know what it was like Rick."

"Oh, so are you saying that justifies it?"

"Not a chance. But me and all the other surrogate mothers had to spend weeks being invasively prodded and drugged for the babies we carried so I can only imagine how hard it would be for someone to actually be born and raised there."

"Yes, born and raised to be genetically enhanced killers ready for the military auction block!"

"They're still human beings Rick! They were children at Manticore. Do you know what I saw the base doctors doing to the X4 series born before Max's group? They strapped them down to a table and BROKE their arms and legs to encode a faster healing rate for fractured bones! They tortured them day in and day out, all the while brainwashing them with military propaganda, and yet you still say that doesn't allow them some anger towards the women who put them there?"

"He could've killed you Luc! He has the capability and ten times the strength needed to break you like a twig and so does Max for that matter. I'm sure her being pregnant doesn't make her any less skillful."

"What are you saying? That my daughter's gonna go X5 assassin on me and snap my neck while I sleep one night?" Her eyes were now two cold chunks of ice staring into his. "If that were even remotely true then why hasn't she turned on Logan, or her kids, or hell even people on the street? She's certainly capable of it you say. But I'm sure you already know the answer to that Rick, being the fuckin' Manticore protocol expert that you are!" She didn't care that he was her husband, or how many times she told him about their experiences at Manticore, he would never truly understand what it was like, especially if he still thought the way he did.

"Luc-" Rick tried to find some way to calm her down, but she cut him off.

"Forget it Rick." Lucia said, angrily held up her hand. "Just get the damn dog toys inside before it starts to rain." She shoved past him; slamming her coffee cup on the washing machine so hard it reverberated throughout the metal making Kira and Abby cock their head to the side at the sudden loud banging noise.

Rick watched a pea sized chip of ceramic fall from the mug, emitting a tiny 'tink' sound when it hit the door on top of the washer, but gazing more intently at his wife slamming the sliding door to their kitchen and locking it behind her.

JAM PONY

"Move it people!" Normal tapped on his black watch with a manila number two pencil "Bip bip bip! There's nothing in your contract that says you can slow down just because it's a little stormy outside."

A bolt of lightning cracked through the sky at that moment and snapped off the electricity inside the delivery service. Several Jam Pony employees jumped at the noise it created - a pipe bomb detonating sound.

"You were saying?" Original Cindy's voice echoed this question in the dark, and Normal couldn't see it, but she was crossing her arms waiting for his retraction to it being just a 'little stormy outside'. The lights flickered to life above her head a second later as if to mock her. "The commode in this dump overflows enough to fill a swimmin' pool but the juice comes back on after a storm like it was wired to a Clapper." Cindy commented in disbelief.

"That's right," Normal stated, pulling out a paper from the pile of signature sheets stacked Leaning Tower of Pisa fashion on his rusty counter/desk. Miraculously the stack was able to maintain its position without causing an avalanche of papers to land on his head. "This entire place use to be a bomb shelter during the Militia Air Raids of 2010. There are enough back up generators built into the electrical system to light the entire city of New York."

"How fortunate for you." Cindy said, though she didn't mean it in a positive way.

"Even through fear, famine and freak forces of nature Jam Pony's doors will always remain open for business." Normal said in answer to Cindy's snub.

"We don't even have a door here Normal," Cindy pointed out.

"It's called a metaphor, a figure of speech of one thing spoken as if it were another." He recited the definition of the word exactly as it appeared in the Oxford Dictionary. "But if you are unable to understand that here's something for your simple-minded brain to grasp: If you aren't out there delivering packages in the next twenty minutes you will have plenty of time to brush up on your dictionary skills while you're hunting for a new job." He shoved a long manila Care Mail envelope across the counter to her and waved her away. "Bip. Bip. Bip!'

Cindy rolled her eyes and stuffed the envelope inside the front pocket of her gray messenger bag. She walked over to collect her bike from where it was leaned up against the red row of lockers. She was about to pick up her wheels from its resting place when her eyes spotted Max coming down the entranceway bike ramp pushing a navy blue hood off her head.

She was shaking a few small raindrops that had collected like a fine dust in her hair when Cindy approached her. "Can't believe you wadded all the way through that shit outside just to come to this hovel boo. If I hadn't a seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it."

"I never let a little water stop me from coming by to see my girl." Max notified wiping the water off her hand and unzipping the wet cotton of her jacket so she could breathe better. "Plus I just needed to get out ya know? I got a little stir crazy just sittin' around waiting for this kid to come out."

"Sorry I can't help you there suga," Cindy apologized, though it wasn't even really her fault. "You could try a few home remedies with Logan, might speed things along." She broke out into a sly grin at what she meant by 'home remedies'.

"Please I'm too exhausted and dragged out to even consider the advantages of medicinal sex." Max complained.

"Did I hear someone mention that sex was medicinal?" Sketchy rolled over on his bike. He had radar built in his head to hone in on words like: 'sex', 'women' and 'threesome'. "All though it is a fact that is rare, it is one I've speculated on as something that can be proven as hard core with a little round of experimentation." He leaned on the handlebars of his bike.

"Sketch, you have too much free time on your hands to contemplate things like this." Max stated, stretching her neck and shoulders for a moment to try and alleviate the knots in it. "This little girl's gotta sit before her back decides to give out."

"Original Cindy's got your back there boo," Cindy informed, scanning the crowd until she found who she was looking for. "Yo Sky, roll me that seat behind you."

Sky - an Asian man in his late teens dressed in cropped blue biker jeans, red T-shirt and white flopped fishing hat - grabbed the rickety wooden computer chair that stood directly behind Normal and slid it all the way to Cindy. A few seconds after he did Normal tried to grab his green sheepskin lined jacket from off the back of his chair, but found that he only came up with a handful of air. "All right. Which one of you wise ass kids stole my chair?"

"Thanks boy." Cindy took the chair from Sky, who had walked with it on its journey so it wouldn't crash into anyone.

"No problem Cindy," Sky looked over his shoulder at Normal interrogating everyone near him on the whereabouts of his chair. "Just don't let Normal catch you with it or he'll start bustin' out with his 'good ol' days of highly competent employees speech'." Sky disappeared then before Normal could breathe down his neck when he spotted his precious falling apart chair.

Max leaned back slowly into the chair's suspended seat to make sure it was fully capable of withstanding her pregnancy weight. The chair moaned and creaked but didn't come apart so Max took her chances that it would stay that way and leaned fully back into it. "You don't know the kind of heaven I've reached here." She sighed in relief to be off her feet.

"You must've been really sore Max because that thing looks as comfortable as a flaming hernia." Sketchy said beside her.

"At this point I appreciate any form of seating I can find so long as it holds up." Max let him know, pulling her feet to rest on the circular black bar wrapped around the pole the seat was attached to.

"I personally think it might cause permanent damage to the kid for you to be sitting on something so hideously ugly." Sketchy went on.

"I'll take my chances." Max informed.

"Why am I not surprised as to the location my chair is currently in?" Normal had came down from his fenced in office 'cage' and looked at Max sitting in his chair like he had just caught his wayward daughter smoking behind the house. "When we don't ask permission to use items that clearly don't belong to us it is what's known as stealing."

"Normal I'm nine months pregnant." Max returned, annoyed at him constantly referring to her as a thief, which she was, but she wouldn't waste her time swiping something as decrepit as his ancient office furniture. "I'm tired, my ankles are about to explode and my back feels like an elephant's been sittin' on it. So don't even think of layin' any of your crap on me today cause I'm not in the mood to hear bout your political out cry on the ravages of street vagabonds on the Seattle run business."

Normal had to wait a moment for Max to spit his head out of her mouth before speaking. "I expect my chair returned in five minutes. There is a sofa in this place that is much easier on an expectant mother's back, I suggest you utilize it after your time's up." He headed back, to his desk not saying anything more.

"Are my ears fully of waxy build up?" Sketchy asked sticking a finger to his right ear and shaking it out to clear away any cobwebs. "Cause I thought I just heard Normal use the phrase: 'easier on an expectant mother.'"

"Maybe the boy ate a bad laxative last night," Cindy rationalized. "Poppin' too many of them soft chews can throw you into all kind of whack hallucinations."

Sketchy ducked his head down, trying his best not to laugh, but it wasn't helping. "I'm sorry guys, but I feel that it's my civic duty to laugh at such a perfectly executed slam on Normal's after hours commodial habits." Sketchy was a master at wording his opinion with the style of a poet who had lived his entire lifetime on the streets.

"I should look into being a more dutiful citizen of this once great country if the perks are as good as that." Max said from her seat. Her relaxed mood at chilling with her friends ended abruptly when a pang rippled its way across the front of her abdomen. She sucked in her breath and one hand flew to the spot where the pain had originated.

Cindy's smile faded when she saw Max's maneuver. "You okay sugah?"

"I'm fine." Max rubbed at her belly in circular motions, trying to will the pain away. "Just a little cramp." She gave a fake smile that even she didn't believe. After last night's incident Logan had insisted that Max keep track of any pains she had the next day, convinced that she was starting to go into the early stages of labor. She had been pouring herself a cup of coffee when a shooting pain had caused her to nearly shatter the cup on the floor. It had died down after about two minutes and she hadn't had another one so she still assumed that it was Braxton-Hicks, or 'false labor pains' pregnant women would often have days before they actually delivered.

"Girl you're pregnant." Cindy reminded. "Getting a cramp constitutes you drivin' to a hospital and gettin' ready to be a baby momma."

"I'm two weeks early, "Max stated. "And besides if these really were labor pains they'd be coming closer together then five hours apart especially with this being my third one." She lowered her hand after the pain had finally died down, although it left her with a weird buzzing tickle still lingering above her navel.

"You mean to tell me you've had this pain before just now?' Cindy asked. She already knew the answer though. Max had all but written it down and notarized it for her. "Boo you need to go to the hospital - NOW. Otherwise you're gonna stamp an eternal bad mark on your daughter by giving birth to her inside Jam Pony."

"If I promise to at least go get checked by my OB would Auntie Cindy chill?" Max asked, finally giving in.

"Auntie Cindy says that swings with her," Cindy agreed. She looked over Max's shoulder at Normal who was staring at Max sitting in his chair like she was defiling an original masterpiece from Bodachelli. "Yo Normal!" Cindy shouted at him. "I'm takin' a personal day to see to it that my girl delivers her baby boo in a hospital setting-" She was about to say 'Got a problem with that?' but Max cut her off.

I'm not lettin' Normal dock your pay on account of me." Max informed. "Especially if I don't even know if this is the real thing or not. I can make it fine on my own."

"I would suggest you listen to her," Normal called out from behind his desk, actually agreeing with Cindy on something. "I already have one employee out of commission because of a thing she has for having babies. I'm very certain Max can have that kid on her own without you tagging along with her to play midwife." He threw a brown wrapped box at Sky's chest. "Fifteen and West Ave."

"Have you seen what it's like outside?" Sky complained, fumbling to put the package inside his baby blue messenger bag.

"Sell it to someone who cares slacker." Normal reprimanded. "If your pregnant coworker can slosh through it en route to the hospital you can certainly stand pedaling half a mile to transport this; now move it." Normal titled his head out of the open window like entrance in front of his desk, watching Sky's retreating figure. "If you didn't want to deliver packages in the rain you shouldn't've taken this job!" He pulled his head back inside and turned towards Max. "And you-" he pointed at her with one long pale finger. "I suggest you get out of here before you're required to pay a large decontamination procedural fee for dropping that kid on my floor." He made a whistling noise with his teeth and pointed Max in the direction of the door. "Bip Bip! This isn't a maternity ward."

"The boss man just gave the orders Max." Sketchy notified. "Are you just going to sit there and let him talk to you like that?"

"I think I'll let it slide for now," Max stated with a hint of a smile on her face. Another huge clap of thunder cracked through the outside air like a driver cracking a hellish celestial horse team across the sky. "Looks like the worst hasn't even hit yet, so I better get started before I'm caught seein' it up close and personal."

"You sure you don't want some company boo?" Cindy asked again.

Max shook her head 'no'. "If I wind up having her, I'll give you a heads up."

"Yeah well you better give me the birth weight too." Cindy added stepping over to pull Max into a hug. "Take care out there Max 'cause you're my girl, straight up."

"I will," Max said after pulling back.

"Don't worry Max," Sketchy began "If this is the real thing for you we'll be right here doing what we do best: Slacking off on our runs to hang by the phone waiting for you to give us the stats."

Max smiled at this, smacking Sketchy on the back of his shoulder "Sometimes you're too much Sketch." She turned and started to head up the ramp that lead out of Jam Pony.

"Hey Max!" Alec's voice trailed after her and he ran up to intersect her on the ramp. His black Sketchers thudded to a skidded halt when he stopped in front of where she had stopped. "Is it time?"

Max was a bit stunned at his choice of words. "You goin' soft on me Alec? Cause I never saw you as someone who would sharing his feelings on the 'miracle of life'"

"Hardly," Alec retorted. "I've got too much of a good thing going to switch to bein' a woman." He paused as if to think about his next choice of words. "If this is it -I mean, I just thought I'd tell you good luck." His words were true Alec, showing consideration for his friends, but doing it in his own direct way. "I've had my seed forcefully spread around enough to know that a kid deserves more from his parents then just matching DNA. And I can honestly say that you make a helluva mom, and I'm sure you will again."

Alec's remark was so genuine - at least as genuine as Alec could get - that Max smiled at him. "You want her middle name to be 'Alec' don't you?"

He laughed for a minute. "Have you got one picked out already?"

"Sara," she answered.

"Sara?" Alec stated the name like a wine that left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. "See now, mine's definitely better then a pussy foot name like Sara, which is perfect for a kid of yours by the way."

"Bite me Alec." Max returned, though there was really no anger behind it.

"Later Maxie, when we're alone," he returned, draping one arm playfully over her shoulder.

"You should've tried to get first base before I got pregnant." Max stated in a completely deadpan voice, something she had perfected over the years when she was making a joking comment but didn't want to sound giggly or air headed.

Alec plastered a grin on his face like he had just seen a naked woman for the first time. "I knew you still remembered that night behind the dumpsters at Crash."

"Just shut up and remove the arm so I can get goin'." Max ordered, though not harshly or angrily. It was rather the ribbing of two people who had the same warped history at Manticore and had come out of it with plenty of war stories and even more wit. Alec removed his arm so Max could continue up the ramp to her waiting Red Impala whose tires were submerged under two inches of accumulated rain.

"Hey Casanova, rendezvous your affairs with married women on your own time!" Normal called out to Alec, sticking his head outside of his enclosed 'desk box' again.

"Normal, how many fantasies are you gonna keep tryin' to live out through your employees?" Alec asked after finally reaching his destination.

"Keep up with the smart mouth Alec, you might need it for your half bit comedy routine you have to suffice on after I fire you from your current job." He threw a wrinkled manila envelope at his chest. "Get out of my sight." He waved Alec away like a housefly he was trying to swat.

Alec stuffed the envelope into his messenger bag. "C'mon Cindy, this run's near yours," he stated to the woman still standing with Sketchy beside the employee lockers. "We can pick up more of Normal's suppositories on the way."

As Cindy met up with him heading up the exit ramp with her bike she held her fist out to give Alec props for his diss on Normal.

"It's just one big joke to you people isn't it?!" Normal called out after them, but they ignored it like always.

The car behind Max honked at her again for the third time, like it was her fault the rain was slowing up the traffic. /I've heard enough/ Max placed the car in park and stepped out into the horrendous downpour, and walked back to the yellow Chevy Silverado that was at a halt behind her Impala. She tapped on the tinted window on the driver side. An automatic button rolled the raindrop dotted paine of glass down and revealed a blonde haired teenage girl listening to an portable white IPod player in her lap.

"Sorry this'll just take a second." Max reached inside the cabin of the truck and popped the hood release button by the by the steering wheel.

"Hey!" The girl removed the earpieces from her head "What the hell are you doing?" She watched Max stand open the hood of truck, rain pouring off her already soaked clothes.

Max only took a few seconds to locate the right connections to pull out to silence the horn and lowered the hood back down on the truck a second later heading back to her own car.

She was soaking wet by the time she climbed back inside the Impala. She squeezed some water from her hair into the ashtray before putting the car in drive to follow the traffic that was finally starting to move. She made it another two miles down the road when a stabbing pain in her abdomen caused her to nearly swerve off the road. She pulled the car off on the shoulder and gripped at her belly until the pain subsided. /Shit./ This one was stronger then the three she had had in the last twenty-four hours. /There's no way in hell I'm giving birth in my car on the side of the road./ Once the pain had subsided she pulled back on the road where rainwater was now completely flooding the asphalt, having no more room to flow into the drains that led into the sewer.

Half a mile up from where she had stopped a Sector Cop in a yellow poncho standing on the embankment beside the road slowed her to a stop with his hand. He motioned for her to roll down her window.

"You'll have to turn back." The cop notified, sticking his head in the window. "Road's all flooded."

"Is it so messed up that I can't chance it?" Max asked. She was not about to turn around after she had waded through all this way.

"The streets are flooded ma'am." The cop returned with the air of forced instructional politeness. "Even if you wanted to be stupid and risk it you'd get stuck in soft mud twenty feet in-" He stopped short when he heard Max grimace audibly. It was then that he noticed her swollen stomach. "Are you having a baby?"

"No. I ate too much spicy Chinese last night and got indigestion - of course I'm having a baby, you think I just decided to let myself go?" Max spat back through gritted teeth. After an agonizing five minutes the ache dulled away and she uncurled herself.

"The roads to the hospital are all flooded too, you'll have to turn around."

"What am I suppose to do, cross my legs and hold it in?"

"I'm sorry ma'am but there's nothing I can do about it." The cop pulled back from Max's window. "Good luck."

"Shut up." Max returned, rolling up her window. She did a three-point turn and headed back in the other direction. There was no way she was going to make it to the hospital now, her contractions were in full swing every twelve minutes now and even going back home was two sector stops away.

Zack stopped his motorcycle in front of the address he had traced as belonging to one Lucia Weston. He covered his ride with a tarp from Lucia's Spinach garden so the bike wouldn't become rusted in the rain. He looked up at the house, sneering internally at the snow-white panel siding and earthenware flower boxes beside two bay windows on the front-end porch. /What? No white picket fence and lawn furniture?/ His black boots sloshed through the puddles that formed tiny lakes all over the front lawn as he made his way up to the door. But before he could even get close he heard a car, and turned to see a red Impala pulling up next to his covered motorcycle.

"Zack?" Max was surprised as hell to see him standing there on Lucia's lawn. "What are doing here?" Water was dripping of her nose and her hair was completely plastered to her face.

"Stay out of this Maxie, it doesn't involve you." Zack jumped the three stairs to the porch and reached for the brass knob that led inside the house.

Max followed him up there and yanked his arm away from the door. "It sure as hell involves me if you're going in there to try and dress down a woman you know nothing about."

"I know enough to not like her." Zack hissed.

"I could say the same about you-" Max's retort was cut short when another contraction caused her to double over.

"You're in labor." Zack informed turning to her, this time his voice held concern.

"No shit Sherlock." Max snapped. "Roads were closed to Metro so I had to choose an alternative." Max pushed past him and opened the front door.

"Max?" Rick stood in the foyer - remote in hand in a flannel button up and faded jeans - and looked over the woman standing soaking wet by his front door. "Come in." He turned off his TV and approached her. "Luc! Baby get down here it's Max-" he stopped short when he saw who Max was with. "What the hell are you doing here?" He had never actual seen Zack, but his wife had described the X5 to him before. "Get out. You're not welcome-"

"Rick, unless you want me to give birth on your porch you better move." Max notified in a growl.

"Max-" Lucia stood behind Rick and had heard her last statement. "Get inside before you get any wetter than you already are." She took her daughter's hand and pulled her through the foyer into the living room where she made her sit down on the sofa. "When did the contractions start?"

"This morning." Max responded. "Sector cops closed off the roads to Metro, I thought this beat out being in labor in the street."

Lucia laughed, mostly for Max's benefit, but in reality she was worried. The weather was so bad now that calling an ambulance would be futile, and she had absolutely no idea on how to deliver a baby. "How far apart?"

"About ten minutes." Max responded, wringing rainwater from her long hair with her hands for the second time in half an hour.

Lucia wiped a trickle of water from off of Max's face. "Honey, you're soaking wet." She turned to Rick and said: "Baby go grab a towel and a blanket from the linen closet.

"I got it," Zack stated, shedding his leather jacket - it had gotten wet in the rain but the rawhide material repelled any water from actually soaking in. He walked over to the sofa - shoes squishing in the rainwater that collected on the bottom of the traction bumps - and draped the leather over Max like a blanket.

Max accepted the offering with a surprised look. "How big of a back pocket have you been hiding this chivalrous response in?"

"You're a drowned rat," Zack informed. "It's not exactly your best side."

"You a real ladies man ya know that?" Max threw out in return, cocooning into his jacket. The leather smelled distinctively of Zack, a mixture of sweat and medicinal soap and a trace of sex. She also detected traces of a citrus aroma she had smelt before on Asha. /So that's where he was last night./

"You're not a lady Maxie." Zack said matter-of-fact.

Max's smart-alec response to this was lost to her when another contraction ripped through her body. "Damn!" She cursed, breathing out the pain. She had enough experience with labor to know the value of Lamaze. "Screw bein' a lady, I'd settle on a epidural."

"I'm afraid we're fresh out baby," Lucia said, rubbing her daughter's stomach to ease out some of the cramps. "Something tells me you're not gonna make it to the hospital."

"You figured that out all by yourself?" Zack growled at Lucia. His hostility towards her had not died down one bit from yesterday.

"Si Chico (Yes boy). I also dressed myself this morning." Lucia snapped before turning back to Max. "You call Logan?"

Max shook her head 'no'. "Didn't get a chance."

"Since my girl's doing all the real grunt work I'll make the call." Lucia kissed Max's forehead and went to grab her phone.

Rick watched Zack like a hawk the entire time Lucia was on the phone. "I don't care how strong you are or what you're capable of doing I want you out of here as soon as this is over." His voice held the quality of someone who was three seconds away from grabbing a loaded gun.

"Believe me this isn't my ideal setting." Zack returned.

"You're nothing by a pissy kid," Rick insisted. "A wise ass prick masquerading as a man, the last loner standing. Hell you're not even human; you're a created freak trained up for deployment as a killer. You're no better then a vicious attack dog."

"Then I suggest you keep your hand back." Zack returned, an angry glint covering his eyes.

"Sir I'm sorry you can't be out here." The same Sector Cop that had stopped Max was now talking to Logan through the rolled down window of his Aztec. "The roads are completely flooded."

"Look this is an emergency!" Logan hissed with no patience in his voice. "I need to get to my wife. She's having a baby right now."

"Well congratulations dad, but I still can't let you by. You'll have to find an alternative route."

Logan cursed under his breath and rolled up his window. He was about to pull way when he saw the cop get knocked to the ground by someone outside. He leaned over watching the man slid to the ground and his passenger side door opened a second later to reveal a soaking wet Tinga sliding into the seat next to him.

"Since he's being such an ass about it I had to go around him." Tinga said.

Logan threw the car in drive, pulling around past the Sector Cop's form being pounded on the wet road. He crashed the car through the orange and white metal roadblocks a second later scattering them to the shoulder like dead leaves.

"This thing got 4 X 4?" Tinga asked squeezing the water from her long set of braids.

"It's down by the A/C," Logan responded watching Tinga push the button that would make the Aztec more tolerable to the flood outside. "How'd you hear about this?"

"Zack's not the only one who knows how to set up on people." Tinga answered. "I stuck a honing signal on the fin of his bike and tapped Lucia's phone line knowing he'd tried to call her and give her shit so I decided to do a little intervention."

"This is like a hobby for you guys isn't it?" Logan asked, keeping his eyes on the road so he wouldn't get them killed.

"How's Maxie doin'?" Tinga didn't answer Logan's other question, concerned more about her sister.

"Lucia says she's fine, well as fine as a woman in labor can be. She's obviously experiencing some degree of pain."

"Got that right," Tinga agreed. "But a better description would be the feeling you'd get from having a watermelon ripped out through your vagina." She drew from experience of her own ten-hour labor with Case.

"Ouch." Logan hissed at Tinga's choice of words. "Maybe I should stop having sex with her after this to spare her any more pain."

"Yeah like that's gonna work," Tinga objected. "Maxie would tied you down to the posts of your bed before she'll let you go celibate."

"You're right," Logan finally relinquished. "Besides it has mutual repercussions. I mean there's only so much you can do with the all night modeling channel and a bottle of hand lotion."

Tinga looked completely shocked at his statement. /Who knew behind all that bookish,' save-the world' exterior beat the heart of an average male?/

"For your benefit Logan you better be kidding." She watched the rain sliding in river amounts on the windshield of the Aztec. Even with the express route they had chosen it was an arduously slow task to drive through all the water. Tinga watched the rain sliding off the passenger side window. "This storm better cut us some slack or you're gonna miss the festivities."

WESTON RESIDENCE

FORTY MINUTES LATER

"Damn!" Max cursed, arching herself against Lucia's back that was behind her on the couch supporting her weight. Her contractions had gone from ten minutes apart to five minutes and were now more intense. "I'm not waiting any more. Lucy's just gonna hafta get over not being born in a hospital." She groaned again at the pain that was still coursing through her.

"Breathe honey, breathe." Lucia stroked her daughter's sweat soaked forehead and took several cleansing breaths to coax her into doing it. "In, out, in out."

"I'm never havin' a kid again." Max complained.

"You probably said that with the other two baby." Lucia said smiling. She wiped the sweat from Max's face with a washcloth she had wet in the bathroom.

"This time I mean it," Max stated. "If Logan ever tries does this crap to me again I'm gonna cut him off."

"I just hope he gets here." Lucia ignored Max's anger towards Logan; it was natural when she was experiencing the pain of childbirth. "I'm probably already gonna have to deliver my grandchild I don't think I can handle playing the role of the wrongful husband in this scenario anymore."

Max managed a smile before another contraction hit her. "Shit."

Lucia turned to her husband who was standing by the bay window watching for Logan's Aztec. "Any sign of him?"

"Not yet," Rick pulled the satin under-curtain closed again and looked back to his step daughter-n-law lying on his couch. "How's she doing?"

"She's great. We talked about going out for drinks after this was all over." Lucia snapped at him. She still hadn't forgiven him for the things he said earlier.

"Better make mine a double." Max requested, hissing under her breath at the pain. She craned her head up from the back of the couch looking for something. She called out: "Zack."

Zack stepped out of the shadowed foyer, observing Max's sweat soaked form like she was a sculpted piece of art. Then after paying his dues he walked the rest of the way over to the couch and stood in front of her. "I don't have a leather belt for you Maxie."

"Right now I'd rather go for that shot of whiskey." She joked around for only a second before her voice turned serious. "Call Syl, I'm not gonna make it to the hospital."

Right after escaping Manticore all the X5's started immediately to look for jobs because they could only steal so much for themselves without screwing up once and leaving a paper trail. Zane became a mechanic, Jondy a bartender, Tinga a bakery shop assistant - all basic off the street jobs that didn't require extensive schooling where their name had to be placed in any records or files. But Syl had chosen to become a midwife the day Tinga had contacted her from Portland to tell her she was pregnant. She worried about the exposure Tinga would be subjected to if she had her baby in a hospital setting. It was too easy for an eager young nurse to slip up and contact Charlie's extended family against Tinga's wishes to tell them about the birth on a non-secure line which Lydecker could easily trace with one call to a phone company. Syl had taken a four-month class at a small privately run school and had delivered Case six months later.

Zack pulled out his sleek Altell secure lined wireless and dialed Syl's home number. He waited three rings before it picked up, sitting on the opposite side from Max's head on the couch. "It's Zack. You're never gonna guess where I am." Worrying that Max was about to deliver Lucia had gotten her daughter to change into one of Rick's old Lakers T-shirts and no underwear. From this angle Zack could see everything.

Syl listened to Zack's quick story on her gray Tuscan style couch. She switched off the TV that had been airing the original 'Shining' with Jack Nicholson. "There's no chance in hell that I'm gonna make it down to Seattle in the next hour so I'm afraid you're going to have to deliver our niece under my instruction."

Max couldn't believe a single word that came out of Zack's mouth when he told her what Syl had said. "You gotta be freakin' kidding me."

"You think this'll be a picnic for me Maxie?" Zack spat.

"Compared to what I have to do, yeah." Max returned.

"This is your only option if you want to get that kid out, cause you know as well as I do a baby is deprived of oxygen for every second it stays too long en-utero." Zack was no midwife, but X5's as officers were taught various ways of offing people, including pregnant woman. They knew how to injure an expectant mother in such a way that she couldn't deliver vaginally and would cause the baby to die throwing the mother into a torrent of lethal infections because the dead fetus could not be removed in time.

Max knew it too; she just hoped Syl wasn't making a mistake.

"This is a bitch!" Tinga proclaimed, staring out the window even though she could hardly see through it anymore. The van in front of her had yet to move. "That stupid jack ass has been stopped there for over twenty minutes. What the hell is he doing, trying to hock his own radio?"

Logan honked at him again, but the van just sat there like an unmovable island. "I'm three seconds away from plowing around him." /Max is having the baby and this looser decides to set up camp in the road./

"Three seconds is up." Tinga leaned over and grabbed the wheel from Logan, maneuvering the car onto the muddy shoulder. The kick back from the Good Year tires doused the Ford Winstar in mud.

The driver rolled down his window as the Aztec as it passed him curing: "Stupid foreign woman driver!"

Tinga flipped him off and finally got the car back on the road in front of the van. She slid back into her seat, straightening out her leather jacket that had gotten crumpled in her movement. "Sorry, shouldn't have been all up on you like that."

"Not a problem." Logan stated, grateful for Tinga's remedy on the situation. "If we weren't both married I'd kiss you right now."

Tinga smiled. "Yeah well save the moments of infidelity until after Max delivers your baby Logan."

Tinga hadn't rolled up Logan's window all the way and a tiny splash of mud shoved its way through the crack and whipped itself over both of them.

Tinga made a disgusted face and brushed the wet mud off of her already soaking wet face. "Great, on top of everything else I need a shower."

"Push honey!" Lucia coaxed, feeling Max about to crush her hand, but she didn't say anything because she was her baby and she could break her hand for all Lucia cared, she wasn't going to let go.

"Is the baby's head crowning?" Syl asked from her end of the phone Zack had to his ear.

Zack could see tiny bit of brown hair on the baby's head - it was almost halfway out. "Yeah she's there." A pause. "This is sick."

"Welcome to the world of childbirth Zack," Syl informed. "This is what you have to look forward to if you get Asha pregnant."

"I won't be on this end though." Zack explained.

"Will you stop making small talk Zack and deliver the damn baby!" Max yelled at him.

"You heard her Syl," Zack told his other sister.

"Once the baby's head is completely out tell Max to stop pushing and suction out her mouth and nose with a bulb syringe, and make sure the cord isn't wrapped around her neck."

Zack picked up the blue plastic bulb syringe Lucia and Rick used to clean out Kira and Abby's ears. /Good thing these people care so much about their fuckin' dogs./ Both dogs were currently lying on the couch whining at the smell of fluids that were wetting the blanket Max was laying on.

Max pushed once more and the baby's head came out fully. "Hold it for a second Maxie, gotta take care of somethin'." Zack squeezed out the amniotic fluid from the baby's nose and mouth. "Okay hit it one more time little sister."

"Easy for you to say jerk off," Max spat, taking a big breath and bearing down.

"That's it baby," Lucia coached beside her. "Push, push, push!" She watched as Lucy finally came entirely out.

Zack caught the baby before she hit the floor hearing her cry at being out in the world. He examined his tiny new niece and his face screwed up in shock when he saw the nape of her neck - a small barcode was visible on the flesh.

"Zack?" Syl said. "What's wrong? Is the baby okay?"

The barcode was just like their's except smaller, but after a second it suddenly faded out like an erased pencil mark. "Nothing." Zack held up the baby for Max to see. "Mission accomplished soldier." He set the screaming newborn on Max's chest.

"Nice work commander." Syl said from the phone.

"Madre de Dioa, que bonita." (Mother of God, how fabulous!)" Lucia exclaimed. "You did it sweetie, I'm so proud of you!" She kissed Max long on top of her head and looked down at the newborn that was singing the most beautiful song Lucia had ever heard. Her lips were as full and thick as Max's, and when her eyes finally for a second Lucia could see the deep chocolate brown in the pupils. "Logan's definitely in trouble now, she looks just like you." She stroked her Lucy's soft brown hair. "Hey baby, I'm your nana, Lucia Emerald Rial -Weston, I know I look too young to be a grandmother, but that's something I can't help."

Max laughed and cradled her baby closer to her. The baby's eyes settled on her mother's and the last of her crying died down. "Congratulations Lucy, you're the first person to ever be delivered by your Uncle Zack."

Zack stared at his new niece, taking in the eyes that looked so much like Max's. He kept trying to erase the image of the barcode from his mind, but it wouldn't go away. "First and last Maxie," he stated.

The front door opened so quickly that it almost flew off the hinges when it smacked with a resounding 'thud' against the opposite wall. Logan's figure finally emerged in the living room, dripping wet.

"Glad you decided to show up dad." Max called out to him.

Logan took in the sight of his wife holding their new baby as he walked over to them. "Sorry, I got caught in traffic."

"Uh huh." Max returned stroking her daughter's head and her brown eyes opened again. "Lucia Sara Cale, this is your daddy though he's normally more punctual then this."

Logan touched the baby's naked backside. "Don't believe a word mommy says Lucy, she's usually full of it."

Max punched him in the shoulder, but then felt him lean over to kiss her, cupping her face in his hand.

"Hello?" Bling picked up the cordless phone in Logan's computer room. After Logan had gotten the call from Lucia, Bling had showed up and had agreed to watch Jessie and Lexi after Logan told him Max had gone into labor.

"The infantry has landed Bling." Logan said. He had an arm draped around Max who sitting up against him on Lucia's couch breast-feeding Lucy. The baby cooed and sucked greedily at her mother's breast, savoring the taste of her first meal outside.

"That's great!" Bling was elated. "How's our girl?"

"I'm fine." Max called out, her genetically-enhanced hearing allowing her to hear both sides of the conversation on the phone. She shifted Lucy higher so she could have better aim at her food. "This baby's tryin' to suck off my breast though."

"Hear that?" Logan said with a smile.

"Oh yeah." Bling answered. "Let me go get the big brother and sister and tell them the good news."

A minutes later both Jessie and Lexi were huddled around the phone trying to talk at the same time.

"Is she all wrinkly daddy?" Lexi asked.

"Of course she is!" Jessie answered her question. "She's a baby." He then spoke into the phone, "Daddy when are you coming home?"

"Tomorrow Jess." Logan answered. "It's still storming outside so we're staying over at Nana's. Uncle Bling's gonna be there until we get back."

"Can you kiss the baby for me daddy?" Lexi asked, chiming it. "Tell her that I'll read her a story when she gets here."

"I will princess." Logan promised. "I'm sure she'll love it."

"Can I say hi to mommy?" Jessie asked.

"Of course." Logan agreed, "Here she is." He handed the phone to Max telling her: "It's Jess."

"Hey baby." Max greeted him. "You got yourself another play partner."

"Did it hurt a lot mommy?"

"A little." Max lied. "But it's the kind of pain that's worth it." A pause. "You bein' good for Uncle Bling?"

"Yeah. I miss you mommy."

"Miss you too sweetie, but I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, bye mom."

"Bye baby." Max hung up turning her attention back to the newest member of her family. Lucy had stopped suckling and now her warm breath was just breathing on Max's exposed breasth.

The swinging door to the kitchen opened and Lucia came in with a tray of left over arroz con el pollos and two glasses of decaf iced tea. "I know this isn't what you're use too considering Logan's culinary skills, but it'll take away your hunger nonetheless."

"This is more than fine Luc," Logan corrected watching her set the wooden tray down on the coffee table. "After all we did just come to your house uninvited so we can't exactly be picky."

Lucia watched her granddaughter sleeping against Max's chest. "I would hardly call that barging in." She leaned over and kissed the baby. "You're the by far the most beautiful guest I've ever had drop by." A pause. "Well maybe with the exception of your momma."

Max smiled and asked a moment later: "Where's Rick?"

"He went out to get some celebratory sparkling cider." Lucia answered. "It's his way of apologizing for being such a fink to your brother Zack, who by the way should've left just because of my egotistical, but still lovable husband."

Zack had left an hour ago to give Tinga a ride back to her apartment to check on Case. Rick hadn't said a word to the man after their confrontation in the hallway, but as Zack was leaving he said simply. "Thank you for helping deliver our grandchild."

Zack didn't reply and left the house in silence.

"Tinga needed a ride back to check on Case." Max cleared up. "She has really good tactics for bending him to do her will."

Lucia picked up her own iced tea glass that she had left on the coffee table's wooden surface, seemingly resting it on an invisible table in front of her. "I told you there was something in Zack to like." She looked at Lucy. "Only a man with a true heart would deliver his sister's baby."

Max and Logan looked down at Lucy when her mom said this, not responding, simply watching their daughter's brown eyes close again in sleep.

WATERFRONT

"Are you sure you saw it?" Tinga asked. "Maybe it was just a shadow." Zack had stopped his bike at the waterfront ten miles from her apartment to tell her what he had witnessed when he had delivered Lucy.

"A shadow in the shape of a barcode?" Zack snapped. He picked up a robin's egg sized rock from the off white sand and threw it into the still water. The yellow and red reflections on the water's surface from the lit up industrial buildings on the other side broke at the impact of the skipped rock. He went on: "It wasn't a shadow Tinga, It was a clear as ours."

"That's impossible!" Tinga disagreed. "Lucy is only half X5 just like Jessie, Lexi and Case, she wouldn't have a barcode. They're encoded into our DNA, there's no way one could just show up on her and disappear a second later."

"Are you callin' me a liar?" Zack growled, this time hurling a stone into the water instead of skipping it. "Cause I know what I saw. It looked almost identical to Max's except for one change at the ending sequencing bar."

Tinga absorbed this information, trying to come up with some kind of explanation as to how it could be true. "What does this mean then?"

"How should I know?" Zack snapped at her. "But I'm sure as hell gonna find out."

UNKNOWN LOCATION

The large laboratory was completely dark except for the glow of ten white Pentium computer monitors that never switched off. They rested in long rows atop an elongated cafeteria-style wood papered table. One of the monitors on the far end suddenly came alive as an image of a barcode - the exact same one that had briefly appeared on Lucy's neck - appeared across the 19-inch screen. Underneath it, in 12 point Times New Roman typeface appeared the words:

'Live birth

Female.

8lbs 2 oz

Sequence String: 332960073452-03

Third Procreation of Class X5 Alpha Female.

Designation: 452.'

A gray window appeared a moment later in the middle of the stats proclaiming:

'Saving new documentation to database.'

A computerized bar slowly filled in green as the file saved. After it was finished the image shifted to a black screen with a silver 3D monkey standing partially erect inside a circle. Set above the image were the words:

'Manticore Special Operations Cataloging System

Security Written Protection: 'Alpha' is: 'ON'

Authorized Personnel Access Only'

(FADE OUT)

And there you have it kids, the birth of Lucia Sara Cale. She's the last one, big familes are nice but they've only got so much room in that penthouse...heh. The last part is just a little thing for you to chew on and wonder about until I explain it. It won't be in the next chapter though. I'm as mean as Cameron. I'll tease you with something and then leave you hanging for a while..yeah I'm wicked, but you know you love it. grins Sorry for the absolute lack of Max and Logan's dog Kaja in this chapter. I honestly keep forgetting I have her in here (bad me). She'll be around in later chapters.

Well let me know how you liked it.

I'm out.

Peace,

Mystic