My Little Angel
By Astro Purple
AstroPurpl@aol.com
PG for language and violence.
Timeline: Anytime before Max killed Ben. He hadn't gone crazy yet and Zack just found him.
Summary: Exactly how much does Lydecker care about his "kids." And how far is he willing to go to protect them?
Disclaimer: Dark Angel characters belong to the wonderful people who bring Dark Angel to us.
* * *
Ben kicked open the door to the cabin before stepping in cautiously. He motioned for Zack to follow before shutting the door securely to guard against intruders.
Zack laid the girl down carefully on the worn couch before beginning an examination of her wound. He turned the lights in the room on low before ordering his younger brother. "Go get some water." Gently, he lifted the mesh shirt she was wearing to expose the bullet wound. Ben returned setting down a large bowl of water beside him before wandering off again. Zack ignored his brother's seemingly uncaring nature before pulling the stocking like mask off the girl's face, intent on using it as a rag. He soaked it in the cool water before applying it to the wound. He noted with satisfaction that the bleeding had pretty much stopped and the entrance and exit was clean.
"She going to be all right?" Ben asked as he rejoined his brother, after scouring the cabin for a first aid kit and then bed sheet. The sheet he proceeded to rip into strips to be used as bandage.
Zack nodded. "I think so." He cleaned the wound thoroughly and than patched it up with whatever he could use that Ben had discovered lying around in the cabin.
"So who do you think this is?" Ben asked leaning back to study the girl before them. "Max?" He suggested.
Zack shook his head. "No. Max is darker. She had a touch of Hispanic in her blood. If I hadn't found everyone, I might say this was Syl, but I found her and I'm sure it's her." He stared at the unconscious girl before him. There was only one way to find out if she was one of them or not, and he wasn't thinking of asking her. He wasn't looking forward to it since he knew how precious their barcodes were to them. It was them, their identity, their name, and their life. Most of all, it was what connected them as family, Manticore created, but family nonetheless.
Ben watched the conflict moving across Zack's face. He knew what his big brother was feeling since his barcode was a precious thing to him also. They needed to find out who she was and if she could be trusted or not. She already knew too much, she revealed it all just by her comment, "even X5s can't tangled against several automatics and hope to win." He could practically hear her say that line in his head, like a part of his brain had recorded it just to play it over and over again to torment him. If this was one of his sisters, he had to know her and know she was all right. If she wasn't, then who was she? Who else out there besides that cyber journalist, Eyes Only, knew about the X5s and about Manticore? "We have to." Ben whispered softly. "To protect the others in case she turns into a security breach."
That was one of the good things about Ben, he always thought with that soldier head of his when it came to protecting them and their family, always. Zack was glad to have someone on his side during tough times, but Ben could be difficult also. Out of all of them, he was the one who believed the Blue Lady stories they wove the most. Taking them to heart and believing them to be truths instead of the lies spun by young kids under harsh circumstances. Believing in the Blue Lady also turned Ben apathetic to certain situations. Where one of their younger siblings might have cried and preached against killing an innocent norm, Ben was all for it. Blind he was to thoughts that maybe they could be friends with norms and live side-by-side in peace among them. This is what scared Zack the most. Ben would kill his best friend if it meant helping his family or saving what he believed in, what would he do if it came to killing someone like themselves? Another transgenic, or worse yet, one of his siblings?
Ben moved first, signaling the end of the silence. He propped the girl into an upright position, holding her body still as Zack pulled at the color of her shirt to find a barcode. Nothing.
"She could have had it removed." Zack said bluntly. "I mean, we do. It's not permanent but it does the trick for two weeks."
Ben nodded; knowing perfectly well that Zack was just buying time. As much as he loved his brother, Zack still had his faults. It didn't seem fair that Zack was CO just because he was born first. Ben knew he could do the job just as good, maybe even better. "We can wait until she wakes up. But how will we know she truly is Manticore and not just spouting off stuff she learned from others or heard about?"
"We can deal with that, when it comes up."
* * *
"Tell us the story, Ben." X5-452 requested of her older brother.
493 smiled at his siblings gathered around him. "Only the best soldiers get to go to the Good Place. The ones who fail… you know what happens to them?"
"They disappear." 116 whispered quietly, snuggling closer to her oldest brother. He looked down at her and patted her on the head. "I'm a good soldier…?" She commented, creasing her forehead and making the statement a question.
599 nodded. "You're not one of the good soldiers, you're one of the best soldiers. And you're going to be even better the more you grow." 116 nodded, satisfied.
493 continued with his story once more. "They disappear to the Bad Place. Where they open you up and drink your blood until you're almost dead. Then they leave you there for the Nomlies to finish off. They crawl up from the basement through special tunnels, and when you're not looking… BAM! They break through the wall and drag you away."
"What do the Nomlies do with you?" Zane prompted, eyes wide with fear.
"They keep you as a prisoner of war, and eat you up, little by little, forever."
116 shivered as 493 finished.
* * *
Micaela became aware of her surroundings, immediately going into alert mode. She kept her breathing even and her muscles relaxed, pretending to still be asleep, or rather unconscious. Gradually she became aware of others things in the room. Two steady heartbeats and breathing to go along with it, and the rustling of clothing now and then, as if someone was becoming impatient.
"You can open your eyes, there's nothing to be afraid of." A voice spoke, startling her.
Her eyes popped open and she studied the two still figures before her. "Figures as much that I can't trick X5s." She sat up, wincing slightly before glancing at her patched up wound. "Staying here for the night?" She inquired glancing at the time. "I figured you'd both be up for the 'get the hell outta town while you still can' phase of action."
"We can still go for that, but now let's talk about you. You intrigue us. What are you and who are you? How and what do you know about Project Manticore and the X5 series?" Ben fired his questions, not giving the girl a chance to speak.
Micaela smiled. "You're still the same Ben, always looking for direct answers and not wanting to believe what was plainly before your face." She gazed sadly down at her hands. "I missed you all while I was gone. Zack the most. I--"
"Look up at us when you're talking. So we know you're not lying." Ben ordered, a catch in his voice.
Zack glanced quizzically at Ben and the attitude he was pushing forward, instead, he leaned forward and began to speak, softly. "Who are you? State your designation. There were only twelve of us who escaped, and I found everyone."
Micaela looked up at him, meeting his serious blue eyes. "I'm called Micaela, or once known as X5…" Her voice faltered. "X5-116. I'm not dead, regardless of what Colonel Lydecker or others informed you. It was false and agreed upon to be the best for everyone."
"Who?"
A bit of laughter escaped and Micaela leaned back against the couch to stare at the ceiling. "It doesn't matter now. All you need to know is that they were the ones who got me out of Manticore, and with good reason. They knew all of you would be where you're at now, outside. They knew that the rest of you would make an attempt to escape, and succeed. Or… rather he knew. I'm suppose to be helping you all, keeping Manticore from taking you back." Her hand pressed against her wound. "I thought I was doing a good job also, but I guess not."
Zack got up from the floor and moved to the couch so he could put his arms around his baby sister. "You are doing a good job. Ben and I would be at Manticore right now if you hadn't shown up when you did. You can help us more by telling us who these people are that are 'helping' the others and me."
Micaela shook her head. "I can't. It would put them in danger. I told once, only once, and it almost leaked, I had to kill him." She buried her face into Zack's shoulder.
"I don't believe you." Ben said sharply. "You can't believe her, Zack. She's lying. 116 died years ago at Manticore's hands. They sent her to get information about the others out of us, and than when she can't get anymore, she'll take us back to Manticore to get the information out of us through force. All she's done is drop a few names and woven some elaborate story about secret benefactors together. If she's an X5, she's a good liar, we were all trained to lie."
Micaela pulled herself away from Zack to look directly at Ben. "Ben, tell me about the Good Place." He looked at her with a faraway expression on his face, so she started to help him begin. "Where no one ever gets punished. And no one gets yelled at, or disappears. When you wake up in the morning…"
"You can stay in bed as long as you want." Ben finished, a stricken expression on his face.
"No one else should know about our story, isn't that right, Ben?" Micaela inquired. "We made it up ourselves to make us feel better after he, 386, died. I was crying, Brin and me, and you wanted to make us feel better, so you told us that he had gone on to the Good Place and would be happier there. And later when we would complain about the training, and everything about Manticore, you created the Bad Place to scare us into line. We made up the Nomlies to describe what we saw in the basement that one-day. It had scared us, and since no one explained what it was, we made up an explanation. Don't deny now that I'm not 116. None of the X5s from the other squadrons knew about our stories, and they couldn't. We were always kept separate. Different wings of Manticore." Micaela sighed. "But you're also right, big brother. X5-116 did die, years ago, and I'm what came into being from her death. When she died, it allowed me to live."
* * *
"I'm scared." 116 said quietly as she sat huddled on her bed. 599 and 493 climbed up to join her. "Are they going to take me away to the dark place?" She asked, looking back and forth between her two oldest brothers in regards to the accident earlier that day. "I don't know what happened. I… I panicked." She added, her eyes filling with tears.
493 shook his head. "No… no of course they're not." He replied pulling her into his lap. "You did what each of us would have done in that situation. There wasn't anything else you could have done."
599 nodded when blue eyes inquired into his. "You were really brave to be the first to jump into that tank. We weren't engineered to love water, but you took to it like a fish."
116 looked at her two brothers with an expression that showed she didn't believe anything they were saying. "But then the Captain had my feet chained to the bottom and sealed the top. There wasn't unlimited air anymore, it had turned into… into…" She struggled to recall the name Colonel Lydecker had called it after pulling her out.
"Never mind what he called it, it doesn't matter that you panicked or couldn't hold your breath anymore. All that matters is that you were the first to jump in and let your brothers and sisters see what the Captain planned to do with it. It took guts to jump in like that not knowing what was going to happen." 599 tried to reassure her.
"Are you sure they're not going to come drag me away?"
"Yes, we're sure." 493 said. "If they try, we'll protect you. We're your big brothers and sisters, it's what we're suppose to do. It's what the Blue Lady would want us to do."
* * *
The memory woke him and Ben slowly opened his eyes. They had fallen asleep only about an hour ago while telling Micaela about their lives and what happened after she had been taken away, and she in turn had told them about her life out of Manticore. He looked towards where she had lain after falling asleep and felt his heart sink. Her spot was empty, and his wondrous hearing told him there was no one anywhere close. "Zack…" He toughed his brother's arm gently, waking him up immediately. How could they not have heard her leave? "Micaela's gone." He whispered as Zack began to realize the situation.
Zack stood and did a quick search of the cabin. Meanwhile Ben dug around in the room they had occupied and discovered the note and envelope. "What does it say?" He whispered, feeling tired as all the events earlier that night caught up with him.
Wordlessly, Ben handed him the note.
Hey!
Sorry to leave so suddenly and unexpectedly, but I needed to get home before the family I'm with wakes up and discovers me gone. I'd rather not our wonderful local law enforcement in the area become involved. Just to bring you two up to track, I've recently just come into a lot of money, left most of it with you two to pass around to my widely scattered family and have it be put to use. It's not going to help anyone just sitting in a shoebox tucked in the eternal depths of my closet. Sorry we couldn't say a real bye, but you both were exhausted and sleeping like angels. I didn't want to wake you. Anyways, it was really great seeing you both and talking with you. I had a fun night, except for the getting shot part. Maybe we'll meet again as I bail your asses out of another jam.
Micaela
X5-116
* * *
Micaela slipped back into her room and bed with just enough time to catch some sleep before the sun rose. She got up the next morning, dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.
Her 'mother' passed her on the stairwell, saying. "Your uncle arrived late last night, we didn't want to disturb your rest so we didn't wake you." She explained.
"All right, thanks a lot." Micaela said as she swiftly descended the rest of the stairs and entered the kitchen. "Hey dad." She said softly as the newspaper rustled and was then set down.
Donald Lydecker smiled, his expression strained, at her as she took a seat and grabbed breakfast. "You weren't suppose to get shot. The plan was for the SUV I was in to get there and find several dead soldiers and the X5s escaped. No one was suppose to know that there was a third person involved in breaking X5-599 and X5-493 out."
"Nothing always goes according to the plan unless both sides execute it perfectly. I was a bit slow on my end. Besides, it was an accident." Micaela said, patting the bandaging beneath the T-shirt she wore. "But I'm fine. Accelerated healing helps. My night was fine. I met two of my brothers, convinced them I was who I was, and gave them the money you wanted them to have."
"No questions?" Lydecker asked, concerned.
Micaela shrugged. "I managed to avoid most of them." She paused and turned to glance out the doorway where she could faintly hear her 'mother' bustling around. "Can we ever tell her? I really wanted to spend more time with them."
The spoon clinked against the cup as he stirred his coffee. "One of these days, maybe. But you have to remember, for everyone we tell, the dangers of leakage are magnified. Plus…" He paused. "I don't want to put my sister in danger. If anyone ever questions her, she'll be able to answer truthfully she doesn't know anything about Manticore or the X5 series, and that she adopted you from a family whose father had been killed. I brought you home to her because that soldier was under my command."
"Yea, I understand. It's just weird calling her, mother, when she's not my mother, and never could be." A car horn honked outside and Micaela busied herself with finishing breakfast. "If you're staying the rest of the day, we can talk later. I'm late for school."
Lydecker nodded. "If you need to see a doctor, call me." He said seriously as she gathered her stuff and dashed out the door. He sighed. "My little angel." He whispered.
* * *
So what do we think of this new side of Lydecker??? Hey! It could happen! It could be true! We already know he thinks of the X5s as his kids and he'd rather not Renfro hurt them. Well anyway, review please!!!
By Astro Purple
AstroPurpl@aol.com
PG for language and violence.
Timeline: Anytime before Max killed Ben. He hadn't gone crazy yet and Zack just found him.
Summary: Exactly how much does Lydecker care about his "kids." And how far is he willing to go to protect them?
Disclaimer: Dark Angel characters belong to the wonderful people who bring Dark Angel to us.
* * *
Ben kicked open the door to the cabin before stepping in cautiously. He motioned for Zack to follow before shutting the door securely to guard against intruders.
Zack laid the girl down carefully on the worn couch before beginning an examination of her wound. He turned the lights in the room on low before ordering his younger brother. "Go get some water." Gently, he lifted the mesh shirt she was wearing to expose the bullet wound. Ben returned setting down a large bowl of water beside him before wandering off again. Zack ignored his brother's seemingly uncaring nature before pulling the stocking like mask off the girl's face, intent on using it as a rag. He soaked it in the cool water before applying it to the wound. He noted with satisfaction that the bleeding had pretty much stopped and the entrance and exit was clean.
"She going to be all right?" Ben asked as he rejoined his brother, after scouring the cabin for a first aid kit and then bed sheet. The sheet he proceeded to rip into strips to be used as bandage.
Zack nodded. "I think so." He cleaned the wound thoroughly and than patched it up with whatever he could use that Ben had discovered lying around in the cabin.
"So who do you think this is?" Ben asked leaning back to study the girl before them. "Max?" He suggested.
Zack shook his head. "No. Max is darker. She had a touch of Hispanic in her blood. If I hadn't found everyone, I might say this was Syl, but I found her and I'm sure it's her." He stared at the unconscious girl before him. There was only one way to find out if she was one of them or not, and he wasn't thinking of asking her. He wasn't looking forward to it since he knew how precious their barcodes were to them. It was them, their identity, their name, and their life. Most of all, it was what connected them as family, Manticore created, but family nonetheless.
Ben watched the conflict moving across Zack's face. He knew what his big brother was feeling since his barcode was a precious thing to him also. They needed to find out who she was and if she could be trusted or not. She already knew too much, she revealed it all just by her comment, "even X5s can't tangled against several automatics and hope to win." He could practically hear her say that line in his head, like a part of his brain had recorded it just to play it over and over again to torment him. If this was one of his sisters, he had to know her and know she was all right. If she wasn't, then who was she? Who else out there besides that cyber journalist, Eyes Only, knew about the X5s and about Manticore? "We have to." Ben whispered softly. "To protect the others in case she turns into a security breach."
That was one of the good things about Ben, he always thought with that soldier head of his when it came to protecting them and their family, always. Zack was glad to have someone on his side during tough times, but Ben could be difficult also. Out of all of them, he was the one who believed the Blue Lady stories they wove the most. Taking them to heart and believing them to be truths instead of the lies spun by young kids under harsh circumstances. Believing in the Blue Lady also turned Ben apathetic to certain situations. Where one of their younger siblings might have cried and preached against killing an innocent norm, Ben was all for it. Blind he was to thoughts that maybe they could be friends with norms and live side-by-side in peace among them. This is what scared Zack the most. Ben would kill his best friend if it meant helping his family or saving what he believed in, what would he do if it came to killing someone like themselves? Another transgenic, or worse yet, one of his siblings?
Ben moved first, signaling the end of the silence. He propped the girl into an upright position, holding her body still as Zack pulled at the color of her shirt to find a barcode. Nothing.
"She could have had it removed." Zack said bluntly. "I mean, we do. It's not permanent but it does the trick for two weeks."
Ben nodded; knowing perfectly well that Zack was just buying time. As much as he loved his brother, Zack still had his faults. It didn't seem fair that Zack was CO just because he was born first. Ben knew he could do the job just as good, maybe even better. "We can wait until she wakes up. But how will we know she truly is Manticore and not just spouting off stuff she learned from others or heard about?"
"We can deal with that, when it comes up."
* * *
"Tell us the story, Ben." X5-452 requested of her older brother.
493 smiled at his siblings gathered around him. "Only the best soldiers get to go to the Good Place. The ones who fail… you know what happens to them?"
"They disappear." 116 whispered quietly, snuggling closer to her oldest brother. He looked down at her and patted her on the head. "I'm a good soldier…?" She commented, creasing her forehead and making the statement a question.
599 nodded. "You're not one of the good soldiers, you're one of the best soldiers. And you're going to be even better the more you grow." 116 nodded, satisfied.
493 continued with his story once more. "They disappear to the Bad Place. Where they open you up and drink your blood until you're almost dead. Then they leave you there for the Nomlies to finish off. They crawl up from the basement through special tunnels, and when you're not looking… BAM! They break through the wall and drag you away."
"What do the Nomlies do with you?" Zane prompted, eyes wide with fear.
"They keep you as a prisoner of war, and eat you up, little by little, forever."
116 shivered as 493 finished.
* * *
Micaela became aware of her surroundings, immediately going into alert mode. She kept her breathing even and her muscles relaxed, pretending to still be asleep, or rather unconscious. Gradually she became aware of others things in the room. Two steady heartbeats and breathing to go along with it, and the rustling of clothing now and then, as if someone was becoming impatient.
"You can open your eyes, there's nothing to be afraid of." A voice spoke, startling her.
Her eyes popped open and she studied the two still figures before her. "Figures as much that I can't trick X5s." She sat up, wincing slightly before glancing at her patched up wound. "Staying here for the night?" She inquired glancing at the time. "I figured you'd both be up for the 'get the hell outta town while you still can' phase of action."
"We can still go for that, but now let's talk about you. You intrigue us. What are you and who are you? How and what do you know about Project Manticore and the X5 series?" Ben fired his questions, not giving the girl a chance to speak.
Micaela smiled. "You're still the same Ben, always looking for direct answers and not wanting to believe what was plainly before your face." She gazed sadly down at her hands. "I missed you all while I was gone. Zack the most. I--"
"Look up at us when you're talking. So we know you're not lying." Ben ordered, a catch in his voice.
Zack glanced quizzically at Ben and the attitude he was pushing forward, instead, he leaned forward and began to speak, softly. "Who are you? State your designation. There were only twelve of us who escaped, and I found everyone."
Micaela looked up at him, meeting his serious blue eyes. "I'm called Micaela, or once known as X5…" Her voice faltered. "X5-116. I'm not dead, regardless of what Colonel Lydecker or others informed you. It was false and agreed upon to be the best for everyone."
"Who?"
A bit of laughter escaped and Micaela leaned back against the couch to stare at the ceiling. "It doesn't matter now. All you need to know is that they were the ones who got me out of Manticore, and with good reason. They knew all of you would be where you're at now, outside. They knew that the rest of you would make an attempt to escape, and succeed. Or… rather he knew. I'm suppose to be helping you all, keeping Manticore from taking you back." Her hand pressed against her wound. "I thought I was doing a good job also, but I guess not."
Zack got up from the floor and moved to the couch so he could put his arms around his baby sister. "You are doing a good job. Ben and I would be at Manticore right now if you hadn't shown up when you did. You can help us more by telling us who these people are that are 'helping' the others and me."
Micaela shook her head. "I can't. It would put them in danger. I told once, only once, and it almost leaked, I had to kill him." She buried her face into Zack's shoulder.
"I don't believe you." Ben said sharply. "You can't believe her, Zack. She's lying. 116 died years ago at Manticore's hands. They sent her to get information about the others out of us, and than when she can't get anymore, she'll take us back to Manticore to get the information out of us through force. All she's done is drop a few names and woven some elaborate story about secret benefactors together. If she's an X5, she's a good liar, we were all trained to lie."
Micaela pulled herself away from Zack to look directly at Ben. "Ben, tell me about the Good Place." He looked at her with a faraway expression on his face, so she started to help him begin. "Where no one ever gets punished. And no one gets yelled at, or disappears. When you wake up in the morning…"
"You can stay in bed as long as you want." Ben finished, a stricken expression on his face.
"No one else should know about our story, isn't that right, Ben?" Micaela inquired. "We made it up ourselves to make us feel better after he, 386, died. I was crying, Brin and me, and you wanted to make us feel better, so you told us that he had gone on to the Good Place and would be happier there. And later when we would complain about the training, and everything about Manticore, you created the Bad Place to scare us into line. We made up the Nomlies to describe what we saw in the basement that one-day. It had scared us, and since no one explained what it was, we made up an explanation. Don't deny now that I'm not 116. None of the X5s from the other squadrons knew about our stories, and they couldn't. We were always kept separate. Different wings of Manticore." Micaela sighed. "But you're also right, big brother. X5-116 did die, years ago, and I'm what came into being from her death. When she died, it allowed me to live."
* * *
"I'm scared." 116 said quietly as she sat huddled on her bed. 599 and 493 climbed up to join her. "Are they going to take me away to the dark place?" She asked, looking back and forth between her two oldest brothers in regards to the accident earlier that day. "I don't know what happened. I… I panicked." She added, her eyes filling with tears.
493 shook his head. "No… no of course they're not." He replied pulling her into his lap. "You did what each of us would have done in that situation. There wasn't anything else you could have done."
599 nodded when blue eyes inquired into his. "You were really brave to be the first to jump into that tank. We weren't engineered to love water, but you took to it like a fish."
116 looked at her two brothers with an expression that showed she didn't believe anything they were saying. "But then the Captain had my feet chained to the bottom and sealed the top. There wasn't unlimited air anymore, it had turned into… into…" She struggled to recall the name Colonel Lydecker had called it after pulling her out.
"Never mind what he called it, it doesn't matter that you panicked or couldn't hold your breath anymore. All that matters is that you were the first to jump in and let your brothers and sisters see what the Captain planned to do with it. It took guts to jump in like that not knowing what was going to happen." 599 tried to reassure her.
"Are you sure they're not going to come drag me away?"
"Yes, we're sure." 493 said. "If they try, we'll protect you. We're your big brothers and sisters, it's what we're suppose to do. It's what the Blue Lady would want us to do."
* * *
The memory woke him and Ben slowly opened his eyes. They had fallen asleep only about an hour ago while telling Micaela about their lives and what happened after she had been taken away, and she in turn had told them about her life out of Manticore. He looked towards where she had lain after falling asleep and felt his heart sink. Her spot was empty, and his wondrous hearing told him there was no one anywhere close. "Zack…" He toughed his brother's arm gently, waking him up immediately. How could they not have heard her leave? "Micaela's gone." He whispered as Zack began to realize the situation.
Zack stood and did a quick search of the cabin. Meanwhile Ben dug around in the room they had occupied and discovered the note and envelope. "What does it say?" He whispered, feeling tired as all the events earlier that night caught up with him.
Wordlessly, Ben handed him the note.
Hey!
Sorry to leave so suddenly and unexpectedly, but I needed to get home before the family I'm with wakes up and discovers me gone. I'd rather not our wonderful local law enforcement in the area become involved. Just to bring you two up to track, I've recently just come into a lot of money, left most of it with you two to pass around to my widely scattered family and have it be put to use. It's not going to help anyone just sitting in a shoebox tucked in the eternal depths of my closet. Sorry we couldn't say a real bye, but you both were exhausted and sleeping like angels. I didn't want to wake you. Anyways, it was really great seeing you both and talking with you. I had a fun night, except for the getting shot part. Maybe we'll meet again as I bail your asses out of another jam.
Micaela
X5-116
* * *
Micaela slipped back into her room and bed with just enough time to catch some sleep before the sun rose. She got up the next morning, dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.
Her 'mother' passed her on the stairwell, saying. "Your uncle arrived late last night, we didn't want to disturb your rest so we didn't wake you." She explained.
"All right, thanks a lot." Micaela said as she swiftly descended the rest of the stairs and entered the kitchen. "Hey dad." She said softly as the newspaper rustled and was then set down.
Donald Lydecker smiled, his expression strained, at her as she took a seat and grabbed breakfast. "You weren't suppose to get shot. The plan was for the SUV I was in to get there and find several dead soldiers and the X5s escaped. No one was suppose to know that there was a third person involved in breaking X5-599 and X5-493 out."
"Nothing always goes according to the plan unless both sides execute it perfectly. I was a bit slow on my end. Besides, it was an accident." Micaela said, patting the bandaging beneath the T-shirt she wore. "But I'm fine. Accelerated healing helps. My night was fine. I met two of my brothers, convinced them I was who I was, and gave them the money you wanted them to have."
"No questions?" Lydecker asked, concerned.
Micaela shrugged. "I managed to avoid most of them." She paused and turned to glance out the doorway where she could faintly hear her 'mother' bustling around. "Can we ever tell her? I really wanted to spend more time with them."
The spoon clinked against the cup as he stirred his coffee. "One of these days, maybe. But you have to remember, for everyone we tell, the dangers of leakage are magnified. Plus…" He paused. "I don't want to put my sister in danger. If anyone ever questions her, she'll be able to answer truthfully she doesn't know anything about Manticore or the X5 series, and that she adopted you from a family whose father had been killed. I brought you home to her because that soldier was under my command."
"Yea, I understand. It's just weird calling her, mother, when she's not my mother, and never could be." A car horn honked outside and Micaela busied herself with finishing breakfast. "If you're staying the rest of the day, we can talk later. I'm late for school."
Lydecker nodded. "If you need to see a doctor, call me." He said seriously as she gathered her stuff and dashed out the door. He sighed. "My little angel." He whispered.
* * *
So what do we think of this new side of Lydecker??? Hey! It could happen! It could be true! We already know he thinks of the X5s as his kids and he'd rather not Renfro hurt them. Well anyway, review please!!!
