"Be good." Max warned.
"I will." Vada said in a whining tone.
"I was talking to your father." Max reminded her.
"What?" Alec called from the other room.
Vada and Max started laughing. Vada pinned up a stray strand of hair and adjusted with her necklace and smoothed her dress.
Max cocked her head to one side. "Now, how did you become so aristocratic with Alec and I as your parents?"
Vada whirled around to face her mother. The faraway look in her eyes told Max to drop the subject.
"Vada, dahling, and you, Maxine, shall we?" Alec asked in a stuffy voice, appearing in the living room wearing, of all things, a tuxedo.
Vada and Max looked at each other and then burst out into giggles.
"I thought I looked good." Alec sniffed insecurely.
"Yes, (giggle) Daddy, you do." Vada stood up properly, with the goofiest grin on her face. "You look very good."
"You do." Max whispered.
"What is this silly function we're going to, anyway?" Alec asked automatically, barely hearing Max's comment.
"The anniversary party of Logan's cousin. I was invited specifically." Max answered, just realizing she had lost her purse.
"Why, so sitting next to Logan without touching him wouldn't seem so suspicious?" Alec muttered, slowly sneaking a purse off of his counter.
Max turned around and snatched the purse out of his hand. "Yes, for your information."
"Enhanced hearing.. Remember.." Alec whispered as he smoothed out the velvet straps of Vada's dress and tucked a stray hand of her hair behind her hair.
She, in turn, faced him, straightening out his tousled hair.
"Remember, Vada, you're Max's cousin and I'm her escort. You came through from New York and Max promised her aunt that she'd take care of you." Alec reminded Vada in a warning voice. No pranks.
"Come on, you two." Max called over her shoulder impatiently.
"What are we taking, the Ninja?" Vada drawled sarcastically, winking at Max.
"Nope." Max whispered. "Alec, here are the keys."
"To what?" Alec murmured, heading for the garage and finding his Baby- His beautiful red convertible with the white top cleaned to a sparkle.
Vada and Max grinned at him. Max had gone to New York to get the car back from Tristan (Vada had just refused to see him, considering their history) and Vada had cleaned it up while Max and Alec were at work.
"Did I ever tell you how much I love you both?" Alec asked as he opened the door for Max.
Vada clambered into the back.
"Nope."
"Don't quite recall." Max added.
"I love you both so much it would have made every creature at Manticore feel wanted and warm." Alec said as he carefully backed out.
"That's a lot of love." Max murmured.
"Even for two very vain women." Vada muttered.
"Hey, vanity is a given when you are genetically created to look perfect." Alec reminded her and they shared a soft rumble of laughter.
"Hey, Grandpa. You normally love to drive fast." Vada drawled from the backseat. Max glared at him.
You drove like a maniac with our daughter in the car?
Alec looked sheepish. "Sorry, but it's Baby."
Max and Vada simultaneously rolled their eyes, sighed, and propped their heads up on their hands.
"Genetics." Alec muttered.
"Where are they?" Asha asked impatiently, removing her hands from her hips and pulling back the curtain once more.
"Max needed more than one sector pass. I guess they had to do something." Logan explained, motioning for Asha to move away from the window.
"Must be weird to meet your girlfriend's daughter." Asha commented.
"Well, it's just another weird experiment from the furry friends farm," Asha winced at the reference, "But at least they're holding themselves responsible for her."
"Big change in Alec." Asha muttered.
"Yeah. He's matured so much. He came down to my apartment just to burn a CD for her. She's a dancer, you know." Logan told her as they headed back into the foyer of the large house.
"A girly freak.." Asha whispered under her breath.
"But Max tells so many stories about how she can kick Alec's ass in a heartbeat. But, then, Alec lets her." Logan kept going on about Max, and to Asha, it began to get boring.
It began drizzling lightly and Asha sighed. Yet another boring party when the subject is always Max.
"Damn the rain." Alec muttered. Vada started playing with the hair at the nape of his neck, making sure it covered his barcode in a stylish manner. She herself had pulled up her hair into elegant twists, half-up and half-down.
"It'll be over soon." Max assured him, feeling more like Alec's mother than Vada's at the moment.
"Yeah, it's probably not even in Portland." Vada added, having the feeling she was talking to a three-year-old.
"Damn the rain, eh?" Somebody stuffy was saying loudly, as if it were some sort of joke. Well, the joke was probably as old as time. "Don't know what the tourists are talking about. This is good old Oregon sunshine."
"Fuck Oregon sunshine." Some girl muttered behind Asha, who was going to voice the same opinion.
"If your father hadn't driven so slowly, we wouldn't have gotten wet." An almost annoyingly familiar female voice reminded the girl.
"You were the one who got his damn car. I didn't even want you to go to New York."
"Just because Tristan…"
"Was using me for sex, doesn't mean my mother can go and get my father's car back from him."
"Vada!"
"Riiiight, the public thing."
Asha turned around, noticing a girl, who looked remarkably like Alec and Max, standing there with her arms crossed, looking very bored. She shot Asha a sickly sweet smile once she realized Asha was looking.
"Max, they've got some great stuff upstairs… Oh, hi, Asha." Alec stopped, his hand lightly resting on Vada's elbow and his other hand lightly pressing onto the small of Max's back.
"This is Asha?" Vada asked in a low whisper, ducking in front of Alec. Max leaned to the side.
"Did you have your hopes up?" Max drawled in the same volume. But when a certain Eyes Only came along, she stood up to full height. Vada followed her example. "Logan?"
"This is Logan?" She whispered into her father's ear.
"Did you have your hopes up?" Alec whispered back.
All three transgenics stood up properly. Alec nudged Vada, who then proceeded to uncross her arms.
"Logan, Asha, this is our," Alec lowered his voice, "Daughter. Vada Marie. Vada for short."
"Marie?" Logan asked, cocking up an eyebrow.
"I like that name." Max whispered.
"Max, who is this lovely creature?" Logan's cousin's wife came around.
"This is Vada Marie Whitman." Logan answered automatically. "Max's cousin."
"Pleasure to meet you." Vada said softly with a smile, putting on a completely new face for this woman.
"She's trained." Asha whispered to Logan.
"She's Manticore." Alec mouthed proudly. She's better than you'll ever be. Ha. Ha.
"Weren't you under the name Natalia Christiansen?" She asked, her forehead wrinkled in confusion.
Vada froze.
"Shame, about that play of yours. Sparks of Love, wasn't it?"
"Sparks of Magic." Vada hissed through gritted teeth.
"That Anthony Andrews was wonderful. People said he was dating one of the chorus girls, Natalia. Was that you?"
"Um.." Alec tried to interrupt, but she kept going on.
"Shame about his death. Can you believe anyone who would be so disgusting as to blow up a National Landmark?"
"No, not really.." Vada whispered, her eyes going out of focus.
"How was it for you? You being his last girlfriend and all?"
Vada closed her eyes for a moment, crossing her arms. She swallowed a lump in her throat. "You know what it was like? It was like going to rehearsal and seeing my boyfriend running out of an exploding boyfriend and dieing right before my eyes. And it was my fault."
"Oh, you'll always feel like that.." The woman unconsciously was digging into Vada's soul, even though she was trying to make her feel better.
Vada smiled weakly at the woman, tears in her eyes. "Excuse me, I'm going to go to the powder room."
"Vada!" Max called after her. "I'll be right back."
"Did I say something wrong?"
"Hey, Vada!" Matt pulled her aside into a small nook.
"What are you doing here?" Vada hissed, trying to pull her arm away.
"I got them." Matt whispered. "Christian and I broke into Tristan's apartment and got them while he was dealing with Max."
He glanced at her purse. "You, Alec and Max can split one bottle and put the other two in your purse without anyone noticing."
"You are a god, Matt." Vada murmured. She opened the bottle really quick and grabbed a champagne glass off of a silver platter that was being held by a passing waiter.
"You're not supposed to take those with alcohol." Matt reminded her and a short rich guy passed, unaware that a brunette girl had just placed a champagne glass on his bald, flat head.
Vada and Matt's eyes scanned the room. "I'll go to the bathroom."
"Good plan. I'll go catch up with Alec." Matt told her.
"Remember, he's Alec Parker, a graduate of UC Berkley, with a major in classical music." Vada whispered.
"Classic, ain't it?" Matt murmured with a half-grin.
She shot him a glare and they both left the nook quickly.
Vada swiftly made it into the bathroom, spilling the contents of the discreet white bottle onto the counter.
Eighteen pills. Divided by three, it would equal six months of freedom from the barcode.
She slid twelve back into the bottle, which was unlabeled. She took the first five pills in one gulp, hoping the pain wouldn't be too much to handle- Again.
Max heard a groan from the bathroom. She could hear Asha closely behind her and she let the blonde woman go first.
"Cramps.." Vada muttered as an excuse. "Thank God for Midol."
"Vada, it's us." Max said simply. "What are you doing?"
"Shit!" Vada hissed in a low tone, and Max could tell that it was taking her all of her Manticore training not to shriek in pain. Her hand was behind her neck, holding onto it for dear life.
"What are these?" Asha asked, holding up an unlabeled white bottle.
"Vada." Max demanded through gritted teeth.
Vada turned around and removed her hand.
Max looked at the bare skin. She even reached out and touched it.
"How?" Max whispered.
Vada took the last white pill, taking a bit of water with it.
The skin glowed a bit, and then it looked normal once more.
"Each pill erases tattoos for a month a piece. I heard about them when I was doing this small commercial for Sparks of Magic." Vada explained. "Tristan bought most of them up for me."
She snatched the bottle from Asha, who looked taken aback at Vada's rudeness.
"Take six. Much easier than airbrushing them off." Vada handed six pills to Max.
"What?" Max was still confused.
"They work. I took my last pill seven months ago, and since the big confusion, I haven't been able to have one." Vada explained. She poured the rest of the pills out, using the bottle as a glass. "No side effects. Matt and Tristan inspected them."
Alec burst into the bathroom.
"ALEC!" Max and Asha shouted.
"Take six." Vada said. "Safe, X6-inspected. Gets rid of barcodes for six months. Trust me."
Alec took them quickly and Max shot him a dirty look, following his example.
"SHIT!" They chorused.
"Shh!" Asha and Vada whispered.
"Your skin is glowing. Good." Vada continued to say. "It's gone. All of it."
Max admired the work in the mirror.
"Less tedious than airbrushing." Alec commented.
Max still fingered the skin on her neck softly. It was amazing to be free with such little effort.
Asha looked at the three transgenics in worry.
She knew she couldn't have handled it if it were her.