Christian woke up outside of 734's cell and instantly he banged on the door.
"Wouldn't do that if I were you. They might put her under quarantine." The guard, he didn't really care what his name was, told him.
"Quarantine?" Christian asked wearily.
"She threw you out last night and went to puke. Said she didn't want to infect her breeding partner or to allow defects on the child in question." The guard replied. "You have to head down to the hospital lab."
Christian groaned. The last time he had been to the hospital lab was during the twin testing period. He and his twin had to undergo serious testing because of some crazy twin. The other one was normal, but..
"Go on, kid. You don't want to be put under quarantine."
Christian almost stumbled into the makeshift lab. He instantly went over to his friends, but they backed away.
"534, 521. That is not necessary. We've taken a blood sample and whatever the Virus has, it isn't contagious." One of the doctors looked him over. "A little late, 510, but that's it. I guess you're fine. The three of you are free to go."
Christian glared at them. They had actually thought he would endanger their lives. They were being selfish, only thinking about their health. They weren't even worried about him.
Alec looked at her in a sideways glance.
"What I would have done for you." He whispered.
She looked at him over the ammunition, perplexed.
"You gave me a hand when I was just--- I was just getting it. Understanding life. And now, you don't even demand details. You just.." He smiled at her in the way that he did that night she nearly killed Logan. When he had just been rejected by Asha, or rather, vice versa. Bitter and reminiscing.
"Help?" Max asked quietly.
He nodded. "I'm still trying to figure out who she is. I buried the memory of her deep inside of me, I blocked her out. I thought she had just left me at Manticore with no one to support me when I cried about Rachel."
Max gulped.
"When you busted us out, the first normal, human thought that went through my head was that she was right. She needed out." Alec paused to take a deep breath. "As far as we know, she shared your surrogate mother. The one who carried you. They convinced her to do it again, telling her she'd be Vada's nurse. They kept their promise. But as to what other connections she's got to you, I'm pretty clueless."
Max put her hand on Alec's. "I think Tristan knows.."
"They assigned him in DNA lab with this other X6 Vada knows. He's the only one who knows and he refuses to say a word. He seems to think he knows Vada better than I do."
Max let out a tiny giggle. Alec was being very overprotective and very serious. For once.
"He doesn't, Max! I'm her surrogate. I know Vada, and the only thing she wants in life is to find her real family. Genetics." Alec shot Max a look, because she was still giggling.
Alec's eyes filled with pain. "Besides keeping the four of us alive- Me, you, Joshua and Vada- that's the only thing I've wanted, too. Except for something that… Would be like reaching for the stars."
"Alright, 734. You can stop playing. Everyone knows that if anything, YOU are the epitome of immunity." The guard tried to stop him, shooting him a warning look, but then she spoke.
"Come on in."
"You sure you want to do this?" The guard whispered. Christian nodded. He opened up the door and Christian looked around the room.
"Vada."
"Christian."
"Having our mensies, are we? So afraid to admit you've been out there so long that you're getting their health cycles, too?" Christian asked, slamming down on the floor next to her, expecting to be punched.
"You want to have sex?" Vada replied breathlessly.
"W-w-what?" Christian demanded, taking a good look at her. Her fists were clenched, but she managed to snap back.
"That's a good thing about the outsiders' men. They can deal with a suggestion that two people just make it like rabbits." She shot him a smug look. "In case you don't know what that means, its hot and heavy sex."
"I know what it is. I can handle it. Just give me a couple of years to breathe." His breathing became short and ragged.
"Figures that when I need you to be hormone-driven and horny, you turn out to be a virtuous virgin who believes I don't know what I'm doing." Vada muttered, inching closer to him.
"I'm not a virgin. They try to break you in early here, if you know what I mean."
After snapping that cool reply, Christian gulped. He was torn between doing the right thing and doing her.
She giggled. It was as if she had read his mind.
"How can you do that?" He whispered. She leaned over, her hands lightly resting on his thighs.
"It's this amazing thing called heat."
The soft whirr of Logan's synthetic legs was oddly irritating to her now.
Things had been awkward. She ignored her own warning, because she knew that the three of them- Alec, Joshua and herself- they just couldn't operate without Eyes Only.
He still believed that she and Alec had had something, because Max couldn't bear to tell him it was nothing.
Because it didn't feel like nothing.
It was another instance where she needed him and he was there. He was reliable and he loved her.
But Logan wasn't..
He was everything she needed- Everything they needed. And here he was, whipping out sector passes and new identities and everything they could possibly use.
Good old reliable Logan.
She glanced across the room at Alec and he smiled at her reassuringly. He believed that she could help him. He believed in her a lot more than he believed in Asha.
At first Max thought she hated the blonde because she had Logan's attention. But there were more reasons. She just wouldn't listen to them for now.
"X6-548, at your service."
He was a brunette boy with wide blue eyes and a smaller form. He was athletic, indefinitely, but Max saw him more as the brains of a mission than the head of it.
"How come they haven't sought you out, Matt?" Alec called across the apartment.
"They think I'm dead." He answered slowly. "Vada's very precious to me. Befriended her during that time when.."
Matt's eyes met Alec's and the conversation diminished.
"What did Vada do?" Max asked softly.
"She was trained to be an assassinator in point." Tristan drawled. "Rather dumb if you ask me."
Alec was over there in seconds flat, with Tristan backed up against a wall. "Dancing was one of the only things that let her spirit soar while we were there. It kept you alive for quite some time, if I remember correctly. You leave that alone, if you're so god damn determined to find her."
Everyone but Max looked another way, as if to pretend that nothing had happened. But something had. Something deeper than even she could figure out.
She had spent hours with him up on the Space Needle. And now he was returning to this bottled-up character he had been in the beginning. She didn't need it.
"Alec, you want me to hurry this up?" She asked, walking over to him and gently sliding her arm into the crook of his own.
"If it wouldn't be pushing our superhuman strength and intelligence." He managed to say through gritted teeth. "I want to find her and I want to find her now."