Title:
Leather and the Lab coat 3
Name:
Joy
Email:
SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com
Rating:
R
Logan was seated at his
computer for a few hours when he paused to feel the sunlight on his face. Life
was pretty good as it turned out. He had made an appointment to see the
therapist that he had seen after the accident initially. Max was coming over
after work, he thought with a smile. He also was blessed with friends, who were
working diligently to figure out how to get him walking again.
His reverie was disturbed by the
shadow of Dylan entering his computer room. "Ya want a drink?" she
asked gravely.
"Sure," Logan responded,
knowing it was far better to drink with Dylan than let her drink alone.
"What's up?"
"Did I tell you about that new
position I was offered that I'm debating taking?"
"Yeah. You also vaguely
mentioned you wouldn't be coming back. I was going to try to talk you out of
anything that required that level of commitment, but I thought I would wait
until we trusted each other more again," he said studying her face.
"Well, all I can do is trust
you at this point!" she said downing a shot of vodka.
There was a long pause where Logan
prepared for whatever his firebrand would throw at him. The firebrand wasn't
throwing anything except drink after drink down her throat. It was as if she
were trying to sanitize herself internally with the alcohol as antiseptic
rather then it as a drink.
Logan took the bottle away from her
gently before she drank herself silly. "What's going on Bobby? You only
drink like this when you hurt really badly. I'm guessing this has something to
do with your dad."
At those words, Dylan laughed
hysterically, "God, I'm so predictable that an ex from over a year ago can
read me!"
"I'm more than an ex. We lived
together for six months… Day in Day out. I know you pretty well. Now, what's up
on the dad front that is hurting so bad," he said lightly putting his hand
on top of hers.
"The position I was offered was
to 'fix' some of my father's mistakes," she stated leaning her head on his
hand. "There was a period of time where dad worked at this government
project that we weren't allowed to ask about. The people from that project have
contacted me about working for them… I was so curious to see what my dad had
been working on that I went for a minor interview, reviewing what I might work
on. I was disgusted, but I didn't show it. I saw enough to know my father
didn't die of a heart attack. These people killed him to keep the information
base under wraps. If I go in, I wouldn't be coming out."
Logan stared at her as she spoke.
"I could fix things. I could learn things. I could re-lay confidential
information to an amazing crusader and hopefully expose it…"
"Dylan, I'm very confused. I
don't understand. You and I were working on my legs. Why did things change? Why
are you so concerned with this position?" Logan asked.
"Because I have no other
choice!" she said defiantly.
Logan began to think the alcohol had
just gotten to her, "Bobby, go take a nap and we'll talk about this later."
"No! We have to talk about it
now! There is no future to speak of."
"Why not?!"
"Because my predecessor working
with your legs, discovered the same thing as me: Stem cells in your blood,
large amounts of them. There is only one population with enough stem cells in
their blood to have given you a transfusion and survive- and I'm not talking
about a series of unborn children," she demanded.
Logan searched Dylan's eyes for some
sort of peace. There was none to be found. "I kept wondering about the tie
you two have. It just didn't make sense until now. You really did find a better
model Logan," she said in her drunken depression.
"Dylan," he said touching
her face, "I'm sorry this hurts you so… but I'm begging you not to destroy
her."
Dylan grabbed the bottle of alcohol
from Logan's hand and downed a ton in huge gulps. "That is the worst part…
I don't want to. I want you to be happy… I want to help find a way to make her
as healthy as she can be, for you… That is what they want from me, to perfect
the defects my father failed at. I would be responsible for once again trying
to create a commanding officer. The last group was too independent."
Logan gathered the pain his friend
was in. She was right about having few options. She was not the sort to be able
to play nice with others and pretend like nothing happened. If she went in like
she proposed, she would not make it out. If she went in though, she could help
Max and the other X-5's tremendously. She could potentially create another out
break of independence. She could expose Manticore pretty thoroughly.
"Bobby,
go lie down. We will talk about this when you are less inebriated. We will find
away to work it out," he said.
She scurried to the guest bedroom
door. "I love you Logan… I thought you should know."
"I know Bobby. I love you too…
We'll work it out."
*********************
Max arrived at Logan's to find him
poring over his computer files on Dylan's father. His face was grimaced as he
concentrated on the words before him.
"What's up Logan? I thought
this was going to be a fun day when I got home… here."
He pulled her into his lap and held
her tight. "I need you to do me a favor… I want you to look at this
picture and tell me if you recognize anyone in it." Logan handed Max a
framed picture of several scientist and doctors in lab coats. She gazed at the
picture for only a moment as she realized she was looking at a photo of the
doctors on the Manticore project. She dropped the frame and began to see
flashbacks.
She pictured herself on a table
strapped down as a variety of painful and torturous experiments were run on
her. She remembered the eyes of the people in the lab coats. The flashes became
more intense. Logan held her close having the answer to his question.
Dylan's dad respected Logan greatly and knew he was
a journalist. Before his death, he had given Logan access to all of his
research information for safekeeping. Logan assumed that the old doctor just
died and kept it for Dylan so that when she was ready it would be there. Now,
Logan was faced with the prospect of having a gold mine in Manticore technology
in his hands.
Logan kissed Max's head a few times and tried to
bring her back to his world. She opened her eyes widely with questions in them.
"Dylan's dad worked for Manticore. They have approached Dylan about
working on a new officer group to replace her dad. She put it all together when
she saw my blood work. I have a ton of her dad's research information in
storage. He must have suspected that he was going to be killed. Between the
three of us, I imagine we can figure out how to correct your seizures and
such."
"What about your legs?" she asked timidly.
"Not as important."
"Like hell it isn't! You were suicidal over the
prospect of being in that chair forever!" Max snapped.
Logan looked shamed face over the truth of her
statement. "I know, but your health comes first."
"We can work on both, alright!" Dylan said
from the guestroom door.
"I'm sorry if we woke you," Logan said to
his hazy faced friend.
"Not an issue… So you dug through some of Dad's
stuff, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Well, let's hit it. A lot to cover before
those bastards will want an answer," Dylan said rolling her shoulders.
"You aren't actually going to become Dr.
Mangala, are you?" Max said defiantly.
"No, I'm going to go in… do what I can to stop
them… feed as much info to Logan as I can… and then wait to be killed…
hopefully, not taking anyone with me," Dylan responded, stone face with
absolute resolve.