Chapter 1:
Mochaije
Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or its characters. Other than that, the story is mine. I own the Joyce and Mike characters.
Summary: Max just spent a lot of money...
Spoilers/Timeframe: Post-"Proof of Purchase".
Rating: PG 13
Max kissed Joshua's forehead and smiled. Things were simple here--nice and simple. She took the empty cash envelope out of her jacket and folded it into various shapes while she sat on the floor. Oh my God, she thought as she remembered what had happened earlier with Alec and the doctor. The smile faded from her face.
What am I going to tell Logan? "Gee, sorr,y buddy, can't touch dis"? She rested her head against the bookcase. She hadn't had to give the doctor that money. She was just afraid of commitment. I don't why I am, Logan sure as hell isn't. Yes, that was it, she gave Doc the money to take the bomb out of Alec's neck because she afraid of a relationship. Perfect. That's what she would tell Logan. The whole, "but he's family" thing had gotten pretty old when Zack was around. And things were different between her and Logan, now. She got up and went to her baby. It was still parked where she'd left it. Urgently she started it and took off. Gotta do this before I can't, she told herself.
Max pounded the buttons in the elevator. She missed her intended targets and realized she was shaking. Damned genetic mess-ups, she thought. She finally hit the correct button and sat down in the corner of the elevator, curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs, and pressed her forehead into her knees as she shook. Logan'll have some Trytophan..Well, he'd better, anyway... The elevator slammed to a stop and opened. Cautiously she rose and exited the steel box. Shaking too badly to pick the lock, she knocked on the wooden door. Max heard the whirring of Logan's exoskeleton and he approached the door and waited, trying to get her seizure under control. The door opened, showing a smiling Logan. His smile faded as he saw Max shaking.
"Oh… Hold on a second. Come in, sit down," he said as he raced for the bathroom. Thank goodness I still have this in here, he thought as he grabbed the bottle from it's almost-dusty resting place in the cabinet above his sink. He ran into his living room with it and handed it to Max--attempted to, anyway. She laughed and pointed at the small end table beside her.
"I might kill you if you hand that to me." She smiled weakly. He nodded in agreement and put it down on the table. Max snatched it, opened it, and swallowed half the bottle as Logan sat down in a chair across from her. She closed her eyes for a moment and the seizure slowed. In about ten minutes it had completely stopped. Logan looked worried.
"You okay? Want some milk or something?" He wanted to hold her--seizures weren't fun, even if you were a transgenic super-girl.
"I'm fine..." She nodded and smiled at him. "Actually, there's something I better tell you." She sat up straight, feet on the floor, instead of her usual huddled-up seizure position. Max put her hands on her lap and squeezed them together, hunched forward a bit, as if she was a nervous kid at a job interview.
"Um… Go ahead." Logan half-chuckled, trying to ease the tension. Whatever she had to say, it couldn't be good…
"I spent the $5000 you gave me!" she blurted it out and turned five shades of red. Logan's smile disappeared again--now he just looked shocked. He tried to get the expression off his face but to no avail.
"Um..what?" He rubbed the back of his neck and showed too much teeth as he spoke.
"Well…Alec, y'know, the guy who came in here when I first got back? Hmm…Well, someone who's looking to kill us all and erase Manticore put this bead in the back of his neck--"
"Like the Red implant you have?" Logan interrupted. He knew he probably shouldn't have said anything --she'd been flailing her hands when she'd started talking and gave an impatient sigh when he interrupted her. "Sorry," he said. "Go on."
"Well, this implant is…was…actually a small bomb, just big enough to kill him if it went off. And it would go off in twenty-four hours. So he had to kill three Manticore transgenics and cut off their barcodes. He was going to kill me and he didn't, and we were running short on time so we found the Doc that you and I went to and got him to take it out but it cost ten large and Alec only had five and I had five so I pitched in and..." She breathed in. Max had said most of that in about two breaths and was running low on oxygen. "And then the Doctor said he was leaving town and he gave me the research he'd already done and then left." She stood up.
"Is that…the only reason you came over here?" Logan looked up at her. She nodded and blinked back tears. She heard something and her gaze snapped over to the hallway. Asha stood in a towel.
"Hi. Um, sorry…" The blonde woman played with the edge of her towel that was on her head. "I didn't hear…um…anything...I better go get changed." Max looked a little confused, then used her enhanced vision to look at something on the blonde that caught her eye. She turned to Logan.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "Looks like I've been replaced anyway." She walked towards the entrance and Logan went after her and grabbed her hand as she placed her other hand on the door.
"Watch it!" Max snatched her hand away before Logan's could even get close to it.
"You haven't been replaced," Logan spoke firmly. "I seem to recall you showering here a lot before… Well, before."
"I meant replaced as… replacing your Eyes Only resident transgenic ass-kicker." She bit her lip and looked around.
"What?" Logan looked into her eyes, but he didn't need to. The worry was all over her face.
"Asha's her name, right? I think she's part of a secret organization." Max spoke quietly so Asha wouldn't hear. Logan panicked. How could she have figured out that Asha's in the S1W?
"I know she's in the S1W if that's what you're thinking," she said bluntly. "Don't let her near the computer or tell her you're Eyes Only, I'll have to take care of her."
Logan chuckled. "What are you on about, Max?" She didn't chuckle back, just looked him in the eyes. She sighed and shook her head.
"Like I was saying… Anyway, gotta blaze." He didn't back up. "Um, could you...move? I have to back up to open the door and I don't wanna..." She smiled at him and he backed up. She left his penthouse. I'd better find Alec and Joshua and get back here ASAP, she decided.
