"Confusion"
Chapter 2: Expiry Date
by: Mochaije

Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or its characters. Other than that, the story and characters are mine.
Summary: Virus bitch goin' down! After "Medium is the Message".
Rating: PG 13
A:/N: Wow! 8 reviews! By popular demand.. (Sorry for saying that chap 2 was up when it wasn't, Hailey originally had a brother and then I realized there wasn't enough room in Logan's penthouse for that...)

Logan went through the disks again. Nothing there. Nothing to explain what or who exactly Alpha was. All he knew is that it had been around since 10,000 B.C., choosing a mother and killing the first two children. And after the third was born, mommy died. One bitch of a system. Exasperated, he yanked the disk back out of the computer and chucked it against the glass pane behind his computer. The phone broke through his developing funk.

"Who's this?" He demanded.

"The... Uh, the lab creep. Max around?" As if on cue, Max entered Logan's penthouse and went to his computer room.

"Hey. Who ya talkin' to?"

"Hey, yourself... The lab creep's on the phone." Max's eyes lit up but she bit back her happiness.

"He didn't talk to you, did he?" She asked quickly. He shook his head and handed her the phone, careful not to brush her fingers. "Hello?"

"Hey. The virus' expiry date was October 27th, about two weeks ago..." A smile erupted on Max's face as she thanked him and hung up.

"What was that about?" Logan asked. Covering quickly, she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

"You'll see," she told him excitedly. "It's good though, very good."

"So we can touch?" He asked, careful not to get his hopes up too high.

"Not quite..."

"So? What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Just tell me."

"Baskin Robbins got a new flavour. It's called 'colour me nosy'." Logan got the point and turned around, going back to looking through the disks. "Anything on there?"

"Nope. Looks like dummy disks."

Max groaned, leaning on the desk with one hand. "Does this mean I gotta get my ass kicked again?"

"This is the only way we'll figure out how to kill them."

-----

"Who says this guy is my biological dad anyway?" Hailey grunted to the social worker. The events of the last week roared through her mind.

"We'll only be gone an hour, dear," her mother had reassured her. Diane Morris was an honest woman, and that's what everyone had known her for. Except Hailey, though; it was if her mother knew something about her that Hailey didn't. It irked her til her mother's dying day, and for a few after. She remembered getting the phone call: a suprise snowstorm shocked Floridians, somehow taking away their driving skills as the freezing rain started. Another driver broadsided their parents, and another, and another... A ten-car pileup. She's been the one to pick up the phone.

Hailey studied her watch momentarily. It was early and the knowledge evoked a yawn, almost startling the kid's aid guy. She didn't know what else to call him except a bumbling idiot. He stuttered and wrung his hands often, an undefiant show of how unconfident he was. So much for social workers having balls.

"Is this Logan Cale guy old?" Grunted the sixteen-year-old. The social worker shook his head nervously, assuring her that he was no more than thirty-five. "Christ, he's young. Him and mom must've hooked up early eh?" He didn't give her a response, so she leaned on the wall of the elevator, sighing. "Where does this guy live, on a cloud?"

Fuck this. I try to lighten the mood and what do I get? Squat. Yeah, my parents are dead.. Like I've talked to them in the last five years? Whatever. Maybe 'dad' has other kids. My age. I'm so fucking bored.

The elevator jarred to a stop, shaking Hailey from her daze. The mahogany door across from her looked inviting enough, so she knocked. A female voice wafted over. "Who's there?"

"Children's Aid Services, ma'am," the man cleared his throat. Hailey groaned again. The door opened then, revealing a pretty young woman, wearing slightly grungy clothing and fingerless motorcycle gloves. Her hair was past her shoulders and dark, straight, framing her hispanic-looking face--darker skin, big lips and eyes, but still very american or european looking. Max threw a glance at Hailey and then looked at the worker.

"Yes?"

-----

"My mom's Diane. I'm guessing you got laid at prom or something." Hailey and Logan sat across from each other in Logan's pseudo-living room. Max had let them have some privacy, excusing herself to go to the conveinence store to get some food a teenager might actually eat.

"Excuse me?" He choked. This girl reminded him of Max; up-front and out there, speaking whatever came to her mind. Oh well, it's better than sitting here and not saying anything.

She rolled her eyes. "Diane Morris. A bit taller than your girlfriend or maid or hooker or whoever 'Max' is. A bit more caucasian too."

"'Max' is a friend of mine," Logan said, tired of this girl's cheek. "And I think I went to grad with a Diane... Never saw her agan though, we went to different colleges." Wow, I have a daughter... A sixteen-year-old daughter. Oh my God.

"Anyway, it explains a lot. My mom and the guy I called dad were both brunette with hazel eyes. I had some questions about where my blonde hair and blue eyes came from. Not that anyone answered them." Hailey spoke in a softer tone, suddenly overwhelmed by the size of Logan's apartment. Her family had lived in a tiny, wallpapered farmhouse in Florida, their farmland being used by the nieghbours for a massive orange orchard. Now she was living in a designer pad. "So, where's my room?"

"Uh... Just down the hall. Past the bathroom."

"Cool." She got up, grabbing her bag and hoisting it over her shoulder. "When in Rome, make yourself comfortable."

"I totally agree," came Max's voice from the foyer. She walked in carrying a box of Corn Pops, microwavable popcorn, a two-litre bottle of Coke. The girl caught her when she entered and focused her attentions on Max instead of her room.

"So, what's up with you and Logan?" If they kept their voices down, they were out of earshot from the man they were talking about. A smile formed on Max's face to cover for the fact that she was about to make something up.

"It's really complicated. You like Corn Pops?" Her attempt at changing the subject failed; Hailey was too stubborn.

"If I'm going to be living here, I need to know what's going on."

"No, you don't." Max turned away from her, tearing open the box of popcorn and getting herself a bag.

The younger girl got in her face. "Tell me. Please?" Max gave up, unfolded the popcorn baggie, and stalked off to the microwave.

"I'm a genetically engineered superhuman who is about five times faster than you and the big bads who made me set me up with a retrovirus after my clone shot me that was meant to kill Logan because he is Eyes Only and has screwed the big bads over many times, so I can't touch him or he'll break out in hives and die a slow and painful death within twenty-four hours, and I don't know if we're still 'going out' or not," she said easily. Hailey rolled her eyes.

"How'd you meet?" She asked, testing Max's story-making abilities.

"I saw his Goddess Bast statue and busted into his apartment, took out his security guard with my thumb and forefinger and rudely interrupted his Eyes Only broadcast. A while later he was shot," Max took a dreep breath and jammed her fingers at the microwave buttons, "in the back and permanently paralyzed from the waist down for the most part, until our crazy friend Phil-who could jump really high because of this exoskeleton thing-got shot or something and gave Logan his exoskeleton--which would make him be able to walk... Then I got him a chip for it without knowing what the chip was for in the first place and he thought his paralysis mattered to me... The anniversary of my break-in came around and he showed off his exoskeleton and kissed me and my stupid--" she slammed the popcorn bag into the microwave on that word-- "brother Zack interrupted. We tried to blow up Manticore--the big bad--and me and him both got shot."

Hailey was eager to hear the rest of this probably-fake story and encouraged Max to go on. "But I got shot in the chest and needed a new heart... And we X5s can only have X5 hearts... So he shot himself in the head to save me. Apparently Logan and Deck--one of the big bad's minions--had a meeting and Logan was shot in the arm and there was some blood.. They used that to give me a virus that activates when I touch him and kills him... It almost did, once," her voice faltered.

"And the award for the biggest line of bullshit I've ever heard goes to..." Hailey mocked. "C'mon. For real. Logan's not Eyes Only, you're full of it." The microwave beeped and Max popped it open, removed the popcorn bag, and tore it open.

"Maybe so," she said, stuffing her face with the popped corn, "but that information goes with you to your grave. It's bad enough Lydecker knows about Logan."

"What a bunch of crap," Hailey muttered, snatching the bag from Max. "I'm going to my room."