An Emergency Change of Command, 15
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html
Disclaimer: See part 1; Code: M/Z, Logan/Syl; Zane, Krit, All; Rating: PG-13
A/N: Okay, kids, I had to throw in something interesting…so here goes. Hope you like
it.
An Emergency Change of Command, 15
by pari106
That night went on like a dream for Max.
Seeing her family again was everything she'd hoped. Though it was late at night, once
Jondy, Jace, Brin, and little Max arrived, Zane decided to cook. Then everyone else
begged him not to. But they were all starving, so Jace cooked dinner instead. She and
"Maxita" had moved in with a large family in Cuernavaca, so she'd gotten used to
preparing large meals. Good thing, considering how X5s can eat. Krit kept her company
and helped out. Meanwhile, Max played with her namesake and watched the baby play
with Brin. Being around a child was good for her, Max decided. And little Max had
apparently grown fond of Brin on their trip to the cabin. It was fun to watch them.
Maxita was a gorgeous little girl. She was only about a year old, but her hair had already
grown past her shoulders in beautiful, ebony waves. She had Jace's eyes, but her mother
said little Max's chin and nose were all her father's.
While dinner was in the oven, all the X5s gathered in the living room just to talk. You'd
think the atmosphere would be awkward. They hadn't seen each other in years. And
they weren't the most talkative people. But once they got together, and the mood took
over, soon all eight X5s were talking and laughing loudly, with Jondy sitting between
Zack and Zane on the couch, Max and Brin sitting on the floor with the baby and Fluffy,
who became an instant favorite with the child. Syl and Krit sat together, straddling a
chair, and Jace sat in Zane's recliner. It was perfect, and they even mentioned doing this
again, on a regular basis. But when Max asked, the others were oddly reluctant to discuss
why they'd gotten together in the first place.
Max couldn't help but feel as though she were missing something. But no one else
seemed to notice, so she let it go.
And in the meantime, Max also couldn't help the occasional heated glance in Zack's
direction. Whenever she did look his way, her heart would start to race as she realized he
was looking at her, too.
She wanted to eat up every single moment she had to spend with her family.
But she was also looking forward to the moments she wanted to spend with Zack, once
everyone had settled down for the night. And the look in Zack's eyes told her that those
moments would come. Max smiled just thinking about it.
Dinner was a fiasco.
Max had known it would be. X5s were desperate creatures when in the direct vicinity of
good food. And since few of them had bothered to eat well in the last day or so, this fact
was particularly true tonight.
They all gathered around Zane's table, and Zane couldn't help but look on the scene with
a bit of pride. They were together just like he'd hoped. The whole atmosphere was noisy
and boisterous. Like the atmosphere you'd expect in the home of any family. Well…
Maybe not just any family.
Jondy was currently threatening Krit with a hunting knife because he was taking too
much time with the pepper shaker. She wanted to eat, damn it. Now. And she couldn't
eat till her entire plate was covered in seasoning. Zane really worried about that girl
sometimes.
As for himself, he never used any sort of seasonings. And if he did, they were used in
extremely small amounts. His sense of smell was just too defined. In fact, he had to
push himself away from the table while the others who weren't similarly designed
lathered their plates in salt and pepper. Just to keep from sneezing his head off.
As he waited for the pepper war to resolve itself, he watched his brothers and sisters,
together for the first time, and wondered about what their different eating styles said
about each.
Jace hadn't fixed her plate yet – she was feeding little Max, though Brin had offered to do
it for her. Little Max was only one, but she was eating the same dish that all of the others
were, all of her teeth having already come in. All thirty-two of them, that is. Brin ate
slowly and carefully, while Max barely seemed to taste her meal as she consumed it.
Jondy was the most slender person seated at the table, but she ate the most – piling her
plate high, and Krit had this weird thing about serving sizes. He ate just as much as the
rest of them, but he had to eat one serving at a time. He'd only fill half his plate, then
he'd go back again and again. Zane didn't get it, but then, Krit said it had something to
do with measuring out the proper amount of seasoning for each side. So, as has already
been established, naturally Zane wouldn't understand. Zane liked to consider himself the
"normal" one in the group, while Syl couldn't eat anything until all her sides were
mushed into one, big, indistinguishable mass. Zack, as the opposite, kept all his food
separated. He might as well have been eating off a Manticore-issue tray. Sometimes
Zane even caught him arranging the food exactly how it would have been arranged back
at the compound, though this was an unconscious act, and Zane was sure his brother had
never noticed.
The topics of discussion being carried on the table were just as varied as the participants.
Between talk about potty training and the latest Lakers game, you could hear someone
listing the advantages and disadvantages of her particular choice in attack rifle.
Meanwhile, someone else insisted that, no, it was his favorite weapon that was far
superior. Then, of course, Max had to enter that conversation, protesting against the use
of guns, in all their evil.
"But if you just go around punching people," Jondy reasoned, "You'd break all your
nails."
Then she flashed ten perfectly manicured digits over the table.
"Do you realize how hard it is to keep these babies in tact?" she asked. Syl nodded,
feeling her pain.
Zack just shook his head. It was amazing these people survived at all, with or without
him.
And as the conversation continued, Zane just sat back, listening, but mostly watching.
And mostly watching Zack and Max. Watching the looks flying across the table.
Oh, yes. This had been a good thing. Zack would definitely owe him for this, and owe
him big.
Zane beamed.
And he didn't realize it, but someone else at that table was doing a little watching, as
well. Brin watched the look on Zane's face with puzzlement. She could understand him
being happy – she was happy. Happier than she'd been in a long time. But she couldn't
help but feel like there was something going on in that head of his.
Of course, this wouldn't be much of a surprise. It seemed like everyone had something
strange going on in their heads. There was a secret circulating the X5s, but she hadn't
been let in on it. And whatever it was it concerned why the X5s were gathered here
tonight. Whenever she or Max had mentioned it earlier, it seemed like all the others were
determined to squash the question. And everyone was being so moody.
Well, not everyone. But there was Zane's goofy grin. And those weird looks Max and
Zack kept having. What was that? And Syl was being awfully quiet. She kept glancing
in Max and Zack's directions, and whenever she did, she didn't look very happy.
Odd.
After dinner, the guys cleared away the table. They insisted on doing the dishes, but after
Zane broke two dishes, and three glasses were lost in an impromptu juggling act
orchestrated by Zack and Krit, Jace promptly shooed them away. Then she and Syl
tackled clean up, leaving the men to saunter away like scorned children.
Max and Brin tried to steal Maxita away again, but the others would have nothing of it.
Krit, Zane, and Jondy claimed it was their turn to play, and they took turns riding little
Max around the cabin, piggyback. Even Fluffy gave the child a couple of rides. Then
they went out front so they could run around under the lamplight.
The last time Max looked, Zane and Krit were tossing Max back and forth, high in the
air, as the child shrieked with pleasure.
Max shook her head.
That couldn't be good for the kid. Maybe she ought to tell Jace to run outside and rescue
her daughter?
Then Max settled back down in front of the fire with a smile on her face.
Nah. If she was correct, little Max's diaper was very close to needing a changing. And
she didn't want to be there when the others realized this. She'd much rather have one of
them deal with the situation. Could you just see Zane or Krit trying to change a diaper?
Or Jondy, with her perfectly manicured nails? Zack was outside, too, but Max could
guarantee he wouldn't be the one to end up with diaper duty. Zack was a brave man and
a formidable soldier. He was also absolutely terrified of squirmy, dirty, happy little
children, Max was certain.
At this thought, Max's smile grew even wider.
Then Brin was sitting down beside her, in front of the fire. She passed Max the beer
she'd gone to retrieve. And she raised a brow.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
Max shook her head. "Squirmy, dirty, happy little children," she said cryptically.
Brin's brow raised further. Then she smiled. "You mean little Max? Or those other big
babies?" Then she gestured to the window overlooking the front porch, and Max turned
to see what she saw.
Apparently, Zane and Krit had realized Max's…condition. And Zane was holding her,
bottom end out, as he chased after Krit. Krit scowled, and tried to voice his displeasure
without actually cussing (for the baby's sake), and ran like hell. Little Max, totally
oblivious to the reason for the new game, laughed like mad.
Max laughed so hard, she had to lay down, and Brin was laughing, too.
Then Max slowly let her own laughter subside, as she let herself watch her sister. She
gave her a gentle smile.
"It's good to see that," she said quietly.
Brin looked over at her.
"What? Zane chasing Krit with a dirty diaper? Ten to one we'll find Zane murdered in
his sleep tonight," Brin said.
But Max shook her head. "No. I mean you. It's good to see you," she told her.
Brin's own laughter subsided, as well, and she returned Max's smile.
"Thanks," she said, sincerely. And they just stared at one another for a moment. Then:
"Oh, hell."
Max just had to hug her, and the two of them laughed as they embraced.
As they pulled away, Brin smiled again. A little sheepish this time.
"You know…without you I don't' think I could have done this," she said, completely
serious.
Max smiled, but she shook her head.
"Brin…"
"It's true! I was…such a mess." Brin's voice quieted and her eyes darkened as she
thought of what she'd been dealing with after leaving Manticore. What she would
always deal with, in some part. Her guilt over Tinga's death. But she was coming to
terms with it, making peace with her sister. Making peace with herself.
Max sensed the melancholy of Brin's thoughts and put a comforting hand on her
shoulder. Brin grasped it in her own.
"If it weren't for Zack helping me through, I don't think I would have made it past the
first month. And everything he did for me was because of you. Because of something
you said to him."
Max looked out the window to where Zack was sitting on the porch, talking to Jondy,
then back at Brin. Her eyes full of love for him and pride in what he'd accomplished.
Brin truly had been a mess. That she could be sitting here right now, with her, laughing,
was truly a miracle. Whatever Zack had done for her had been wonderful. Even though
she'd loved him, she'd never known he was capable of the sort of tender compassion it
must have taken to get through to such an emotionally scarred case as Brin had been.
"Really?" she asked now.
"Yeah. He never said what you told him, but he said it made him think. About a lot of
things. And that gave him what he needed to be there for me."
"Really?" Max could only repeat. Zack's words from earlier came back to her. "It made
me think. About a lot of things," he'd told her. He'd been talking about her telling him
that she loved him. Had that really made such a difference to him?
'Oh, Zack…'
Brin smiled, and kind of laughed. "Yeah. I didn't think Zack was the nurturing type, you
know. After the two of you got me out of Manticore, I was so worried I'd just be in his
way. I was feeling so emotional, and Zack wasn't very good with emotions."
Max nodded. "Yeah." Poor Zack. It had always been so hard for him to accept
weakness in others. In himself, most of all. And he'd once seen emotion as a weakness.
But no more, right?
"I never considered doing things differently," he'd said. "Until you told me you loved
me."
"…doing things differently…"
Was that the difference? Emotion? Did he no longer see it as a weakness? Could he
accept it now? He seemed to accept it from her. Did that mean he accepted it from
himself?
Brin was still talking, and her words snapped Max out of her reverie.
"So when we left Seattle together…"
Max looked at her sharply.
"What?"
Brin blinked. What had she said.
"I said…"
"Yeah, I know." Then Max smiled, trying to make herself less sharp than she had. Brin
had just surprised her, that's all. She didn't know Zack had left with Brin. And he hadn't
mentioned it. Why was that?
"I mean, I didn't know you two left Seattle together," Max clarified.
"Okay." Brin gave Max an odd look, but whatever she'd sensed in her sister's voice
before didn't seem to be there any longer. Maybe she'd imagined it?
Then Brin got caught back up in her story, and she smiled again.
"Anyhow, when we left Seattle together, I figured it would be same as usual. Find a new
place, set up a new identity. Hello, goodbye, here's my contact number. Maybe a pat on
the back and that little look Zack gives you when he's worried but he doesn't know what
to do about it, you know?"
Max nodded.
And Brin shrugged. "And that was cool. That's all I expected. But I so didn't want to
be alone, Max," she said. Brin's eyes were shining with tears again, all of a sudden, and
Max put that comforting hand back on her shoulder. A weird thought was beginning to
form in her head, however.
Through Brin's tears, there was also happiness. And gratitude.
"But he didn't leave me alone. He set me up in a new place, but he didn't just leave right
away. He stayed to talk. Just to be there if I needed him." Brin shook her head, thinking
about it. She still couldn't believe it. How good Zack had been to her. How much it had
helped. "And we talked. He let me talk his ear off! I've never felt so much better in all
my life. I really needed someone to talk to, you know? I was just afraid to open up to
anyone."
Brin raised a brow. "But you know Zack. If he says he's there to listen, well, by God,
you better give him something to listen to. He doesn't take no for an answer." Brin
would never forget that. She would never forget how that had saved her from herself.
"Strangest therapist I've ever seen," she quipped. "It's like, 'Hey, sis, I'm here to talk.
Let it all out.' All supportive. Then, when that doesn't work, he just orders you to talk!"
Brin laughed, and Max laughed with her, but her heart wasn't really in it. She was
starting to look at Brin differently. Could…No, that's impossible. But there was
something in Brin's eyes as she looked out the window at Zack. Something…
Max shook her head. 'That's crazy!' she thought, angry at herself. But once it had
started, Max couldn't get the thought out of her head. What if Zack…and Brin…
Of course, Max was misunderstanding all of this. But she didn't know that. And Brin
had no idea what she was thinking.
She looked at Zack, loving her big brother fiercely for all he'd done.
She turned back to Max, not recognizing the questions burning in Max's eyes.
And she mistook the odd look Max was giving her, so she shrugged. Feeling a little silly
talking about this now. "I don't know," she said. "It was nice. Zack and I, we…" They
what? Brin thought about it. They'd become friends; not just siblings. But she felt
weird saying that. There was a time when she'd thought Zack hadn't needed any friends.
That he truly hadn't wanted them. How badly she'd misunderstood him. But she wasn't
sure whether any of her other brothers and sisters had yet realized what Brin had. Max,
out of all of them, should have. She'd spent more time with Zack than anyone besides
Brin or Zane. And Brin hadn't seen Max since the raid until today, and so much of her
life before then, before Manticore was still pretty jumbled in her head…but she thought
Max knew Zack well enough to understand what she was saying. Max had to know him
that way if those looks they were giving each other meant what Brin thought they meant.
Still, Brin chose her words carefully. Not wanting to sound silly in front of her sister.
Just in case she had misinterpreted what she thought was going on between Max and
Zack. If Max didn't realize that Zack could be a friend, too, then she would soon enough
on her own. If Zack cared enough about reconnecting with his brothers and sisters to let
Zane bring them here tonight, then he must have the intention of being around a lot more.
For all of them. Then they'd all get to know Zack better, if they didn't know him already.
Including Max.
"We became close," Brin finally finished.
She had no idea how Max was going to take that comment.
If she had, she probably would have laughed before setting her sister straight.
But she didn't know what Max was thinking. She didn't know that Max's stomach had
just dropped or why she'd just gone pale. Brin thought Max's sudden pallor was just in
her imagination; a trick of the firelight.
She noticed that Max had suddenly gotten awful quiet, though.
So she hurried up to finish her point, shrugging again. Maybe all this "sappy" talk was
making her uncomfortable. She knew how it had hurt Max to see her the way she was
when they took her out of Manticore. Perhaps she didn't like being reminded of that
time.
"Anyhow," Brin said. "I guess I just never gave him the credit he deserved. There's a lot
about him I didn't know." That was as close as she'd come to explaining the discovery
she'd made about her brother's capacity for emotion. As she'd already decided to let the
others find out for themselves. "Or maybe he's changed. I don't know. He does seem
different, doesn't he?"
"Different?" Max's voice was quiet.
"Yeah." Then Brin remembered something. "You know, he actually mentioned
something like that. He said he wanted to do things differently than he had before. He
actually apologized for not being…get this… "emotionally available" before. Can you
imagine?"
Max swallowed.
'…different…'
Brin put her arm around her sister's shoulders, not paying any attention to how stiff
they'd become.
"And it's all because of you, sister," she said affectionately. "I couldn't have made it
through this without Zack. I wouldn't even be out if it weren't for you and him. And
Zack wouldn't have been there for me if you hadn't been there for him." Brin shook her
head. "Whatever you told him must have been something. What did you do, threaten to
kick his ass? Because I don't think he'd have been able to develop the kind of
relationship we developed if what you said hadn't made him think about doing things
differently."
'Oh, God!'
Brin had no idea what happened. One second she and Max were sitting beside one
another, talking.
And the next moment, Max was heading for the back door of the cabin. And fast.
Without looking back.
Brin watched her go, with confusion and concern.
"Max?" she called. Max didn't stop. "Max!" Then her sister was gone.
In the kitchen, Jace and Syl turned as Max raced out the back door, exchanging a look.
Jace saw something in Syl's eyes and asked if she knew what was going on.
Syl just shook her head, and went back to scrubbing a dish.
This time, she scrubbed a little too hard. The plate shattered in her hands.
**** ****
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html
Disclaimer: See part 1; Code: M/Z, Logan/Syl; Zane, Krit, All; Rating: PG-13
A/N: Okay, kids, I had to throw in something interesting…so here goes. Hope you like
it.
An Emergency Change of Command, 15
by pari106
That night went on like a dream for Max.
Seeing her family again was everything she'd hoped. Though it was late at night, once
Jondy, Jace, Brin, and little Max arrived, Zane decided to cook. Then everyone else
begged him not to. But they were all starving, so Jace cooked dinner instead. She and
"Maxita" had moved in with a large family in Cuernavaca, so she'd gotten used to
preparing large meals. Good thing, considering how X5s can eat. Krit kept her company
and helped out. Meanwhile, Max played with her namesake and watched the baby play
with Brin. Being around a child was good for her, Max decided. And little Max had
apparently grown fond of Brin on their trip to the cabin. It was fun to watch them.
Maxita was a gorgeous little girl. She was only about a year old, but her hair had already
grown past her shoulders in beautiful, ebony waves. She had Jace's eyes, but her mother
said little Max's chin and nose were all her father's.
While dinner was in the oven, all the X5s gathered in the living room just to talk. You'd
think the atmosphere would be awkward. They hadn't seen each other in years. And
they weren't the most talkative people. But once they got together, and the mood took
over, soon all eight X5s were talking and laughing loudly, with Jondy sitting between
Zack and Zane on the couch, Max and Brin sitting on the floor with the baby and Fluffy,
who became an instant favorite with the child. Syl and Krit sat together, straddling a
chair, and Jace sat in Zane's recliner. It was perfect, and they even mentioned doing this
again, on a regular basis. But when Max asked, the others were oddly reluctant to discuss
why they'd gotten together in the first place.
Max couldn't help but feel as though she were missing something. But no one else
seemed to notice, so she let it go.
And in the meantime, Max also couldn't help the occasional heated glance in Zack's
direction. Whenever she did look his way, her heart would start to race as she realized he
was looking at her, too.
She wanted to eat up every single moment she had to spend with her family.
But she was also looking forward to the moments she wanted to spend with Zack, once
everyone had settled down for the night. And the look in Zack's eyes told her that those
moments would come. Max smiled just thinking about it.
Dinner was a fiasco.
Max had known it would be. X5s were desperate creatures when in the direct vicinity of
good food. And since few of them had bothered to eat well in the last day or so, this fact
was particularly true tonight.
They all gathered around Zane's table, and Zane couldn't help but look on the scene with
a bit of pride. They were together just like he'd hoped. The whole atmosphere was noisy
and boisterous. Like the atmosphere you'd expect in the home of any family. Well…
Maybe not just any family.
Jondy was currently threatening Krit with a hunting knife because he was taking too
much time with the pepper shaker. She wanted to eat, damn it. Now. And she couldn't
eat till her entire plate was covered in seasoning. Zane really worried about that girl
sometimes.
As for himself, he never used any sort of seasonings. And if he did, they were used in
extremely small amounts. His sense of smell was just too defined. In fact, he had to
push himself away from the table while the others who weren't similarly designed
lathered their plates in salt and pepper. Just to keep from sneezing his head off.
As he waited for the pepper war to resolve itself, he watched his brothers and sisters,
together for the first time, and wondered about what their different eating styles said
about each.
Jace hadn't fixed her plate yet – she was feeding little Max, though Brin had offered to do
it for her. Little Max was only one, but she was eating the same dish that all of the others
were, all of her teeth having already come in. All thirty-two of them, that is. Brin ate
slowly and carefully, while Max barely seemed to taste her meal as she consumed it.
Jondy was the most slender person seated at the table, but she ate the most – piling her
plate high, and Krit had this weird thing about serving sizes. He ate just as much as the
rest of them, but he had to eat one serving at a time. He'd only fill half his plate, then
he'd go back again and again. Zane didn't get it, but then, Krit said it had something to
do with measuring out the proper amount of seasoning for each side. So, as has already
been established, naturally Zane wouldn't understand. Zane liked to consider himself the
"normal" one in the group, while Syl couldn't eat anything until all her sides were
mushed into one, big, indistinguishable mass. Zack, as the opposite, kept all his food
separated. He might as well have been eating off a Manticore-issue tray. Sometimes
Zane even caught him arranging the food exactly how it would have been arranged back
at the compound, though this was an unconscious act, and Zane was sure his brother had
never noticed.
The topics of discussion being carried on the table were just as varied as the participants.
Between talk about potty training and the latest Lakers game, you could hear someone
listing the advantages and disadvantages of her particular choice in attack rifle.
Meanwhile, someone else insisted that, no, it was his favorite weapon that was far
superior. Then, of course, Max had to enter that conversation, protesting against the use
of guns, in all their evil.
"But if you just go around punching people," Jondy reasoned, "You'd break all your
nails."
Then she flashed ten perfectly manicured digits over the table.
"Do you realize how hard it is to keep these babies in tact?" she asked. Syl nodded,
feeling her pain.
Zack just shook his head. It was amazing these people survived at all, with or without
him.
And as the conversation continued, Zane just sat back, listening, but mostly watching.
And mostly watching Zack and Max. Watching the looks flying across the table.
Oh, yes. This had been a good thing. Zack would definitely owe him for this, and owe
him big.
Zane beamed.
And he didn't realize it, but someone else at that table was doing a little watching, as
well. Brin watched the look on Zane's face with puzzlement. She could understand him
being happy – she was happy. Happier than she'd been in a long time. But she couldn't
help but feel like there was something going on in that head of his.
Of course, this wouldn't be much of a surprise. It seemed like everyone had something
strange going on in their heads. There was a secret circulating the X5s, but she hadn't
been let in on it. And whatever it was it concerned why the X5s were gathered here
tonight. Whenever she or Max had mentioned it earlier, it seemed like all the others were
determined to squash the question. And everyone was being so moody.
Well, not everyone. But there was Zane's goofy grin. And those weird looks Max and
Zack kept having. What was that? And Syl was being awfully quiet. She kept glancing
in Max and Zack's directions, and whenever she did, she didn't look very happy.
Odd.
After dinner, the guys cleared away the table. They insisted on doing the dishes, but after
Zane broke two dishes, and three glasses were lost in an impromptu juggling act
orchestrated by Zack and Krit, Jace promptly shooed them away. Then she and Syl
tackled clean up, leaving the men to saunter away like scorned children.
Max and Brin tried to steal Maxita away again, but the others would have nothing of it.
Krit, Zane, and Jondy claimed it was their turn to play, and they took turns riding little
Max around the cabin, piggyback. Even Fluffy gave the child a couple of rides. Then
they went out front so they could run around under the lamplight.
The last time Max looked, Zane and Krit were tossing Max back and forth, high in the
air, as the child shrieked with pleasure.
Max shook her head.
That couldn't be good for the kid. Maybe she ought to tell Jace to run outside and rescue
her daughter?
Then Max settled back down in front of the fire with a smile on her face.
Nah. If she was correct, little Max's diaper was very close to needing a changing. And
she didn't want to be there when the others realized this. She'd much rather have one of
them deal with the situation. Could you just see Zane or Krit trying to change a diaper?
Or Jondy, with her perfectly manicured nails? Zack was outside, too, but Max could
guarantee he wouldn't be the one to end up with diaper duty. Zack was a brave man and
a formidable soldier. He was also absolutely terrified of squirmy, dirty, happy little
children, Max was certain.
At this thought, Max's smile grew even wider.
Then Brin was sitting down beside her, in front of the fire. She passed Max the beer
she'd gone to retrieve. And she raised a brow.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
Max shook her head. "Squirmy, dirty, happy little children," she said cryptically.
Brin's brow raised further. Then she smiled. "You mean little Max? Or those other big
babies?" Then she gestured to the window overlooking the front porch, and Max turned
to see what she saw.
Apparently, Zane and Krit had realized Max's…condition. And Zane was holding her,
bottom end out, as he chased after Krit. Krit scowled, and tried to voice his displeasure
without actually cussing (for the baby's sake), and ran like hell. Little Max, totally
oblivious to the reason for the new game, laughed like mad.
Max laughed so hard, she had to lay down, and Brin was laughing, too.
Then Max slowly let her own laughter subside, as she let herself watch her sister. She
gave her a gentle smile.
"It's good to see that," she said quietly.
Brin looked over at her.
"What? Zane chasing Krit with a dirty diaper? Ten to one we'll find Zane murdered in
his sleep tonight," Brin said.
But Max shook her head. "No. I mean you. It's good to see you," she told her.
Brin's own laughter subsided, as well, and she returned Max's smile.
"Thanks," she said, sincerely. And they just stared at one another for a moment. Then:
"Oh, hell."
Max just had to hug her, and the two of them laughed as they embraced.
As they pulled away, Brin smiled again. A little sheepish this time.
"You know…without you I don't' think I could have done this," she said, completely
serious.
Max smiled, but she shook her head.
"Brin…"
"It's true! I was…such a mess." Brin's voice quieted and her eyes darkened as she
thought of what she'd been dealing with after leaving Manticore. What she would
always deal with, in some part. Her guilt over Tinga's death. But she was coming to
terms with it, making peace with her sister. Making peace with herself.
Max sensed the melancholy of Brin's thoughts and put a comforting hand on her
shoulder. Brin grasped it in her own.
"If it weren't for Zack helping me through, I don't think I would have made it past the
first month. And everything he did for me was because of you. Because of something
you said to him."
Max looked out the window to where Zack was sitting on the porch, talking to Jondy,
then back at Brin. Her eyes full of love for him and pride in what he'd accomplished.
Brin truly had been a mess. That she could be sitting here right now, with her, laughing,
was truly a miracle. Whatever Zack had done for her had been wonderful. Even though
she'd loved him, she'd never known he was capable of the sort of tender compassion it
must have taken to get through to such an emotionally scarred case as Brin had been.
"Really?" she asked now.
"Yeah. He never said what you told him, but he said it made him think. About a lot of
things. And that gave him what he needed to be there for me."
"Really?" Max could only repeat. Zack's words from earlier came back to her. "It made
me think. About a lot of things," he'd told her. He'd been talking about her telling him
that she loved him. Had that really made such a difference to him?
'Oh, Zack…'
Brin smiled, and kind of laughed. "Yeah. I didn't think Zack was the nurturing type, you
know. After the two of you got me out of Manticore, I was so worried I'd just be in his
way. I was feeling so emotional, and Zack wasn't very good with emotions."
Max nodded. "Yeah." Poor Zack. It had always been so hard for him to accept
weakness in others. In himself, most of all. And he'd once seen emotion as a weakness.
But no more, right?
"I never considered doing things differently," he'd said. "Until you told me you loved
me."
"…doing things differently…"
Was that the difference? Emotion? Did he no longer see it as a weakness? Could he
accept it now? He seemed to accept it from her. Did that mean he accepted it from
himself?
Brin was still talking, and her words snapped Max out of her reverie.
"So when we left Seattle together…"
Max looked at her sharply.
"What?"
Brin blinked. What had she said.
"I said…"
"Yeah, I know." Then Max smiled, trying to make herself less sharp than she had. Brin
had just surprised her, that's all. She didn't know Zack had left with Brin. And he hadn't
mentioned it. Why was that?
"I mean, I didn't know you two left Seattle together," Max clarified.
"Okay." Brin gave Max an odd look, but whatever she'd sensed in her sister's voice
before didn't seem to be there any longer. Maybe she'd imagined it?
Then Brin got caught back up in her story, and she smiled again.
"Anyhow, when we left Seattle together, I figured it would be same as usual. Find a new
place, set up a new identity. Hello, goodbye, here's my contact number. Maybe a pat on
the back and that little look Zack gives you when he's worried but he doesn't know what
to do about it, you know?"
Max nodded.
And Brin shrugged. "And that was cool. That's all I expected. But I so didn't want to
be alone, Max," she said. Brin's eyes were shining with tears again, all of a sudden, and
Max put that comforting hand back on her shoulder. A weird thought was beginning to
form in her head, however.
Through Brin's tears, there was also happiness. And gratitude.
"But he didn't leave me alone. He set me up in a new place, but he didn't just leave right
away. He stayed to talk. Just to be there if I needed him." Brin shook her head, thinking
about it. She still couldn't believe it. How good Zack had been to her. How much it had
helped. "And we talked. He let me talk his ear off! I've never felt so much better in all
my life. I really needed someone to talk to, you know? I was just afraid to open up to
anyone."
Brin raised a brow. "But you know Zack. If he says he's there to listen, well, by God,
you better give him something to listen to. He doesn't take no for an answer." Brin
would never forget that. She would never forget how that had saved her from herself.
"Strangest therapist I've ever seen," she quipped. "It's like, 'Hey, sis, I'm here to talk.
Let it all out.' All supportive. Then, when that doesn't work, he just orders you to talk!"
Brin laughed, and Max laughed with her, but her heart wasn't really in it. She was
starting to look at Brin differently. Could…No, that's impossible. But there was
something in Brin's eyes as she looked out the window at Zack. Something…
Max shook her head. 'That's crazy!' she thought, angry at herself. But once it had
started, Max couldn't get the thought out of her head. What if Zack…and Brin…
Of course, Max was misunderstanding all of this. But she didn't know that. And Brin
had no idea what she was thinking.
She looked at Zack, loving her big brother fiercely for all he'd done.
She turned back to Max, not recognizing the questions burning in Max's eyes.
And she mistook the odd look Max was giving her, so she shrugged. Feeling a little silly
talking about this now. "I don't know," she said. "It was nice. Zack and I, we…" They
what? Brin thought about it. They'd become friends; not just siblings. But she felt
weird saying that. There was a time when she'd thought Zack hadn't needed any friends.
That he truly hadn't wanted them. How badly she'd misunderstood him. But she wasn't
sure whether any of her other brothers and sisters had yet realized what Brin had. Max,
out of all of them, should have. She'd spent more time with Zack than anyone besides
Brin or Zane. And Brin hadn't seen Max since the raid until today, and so much of her
life before then, before Manticore was still pretty jumbled in her head…but she thought
Max knew Zack well enough to understand what she was saying. Max had to know him
that way if those looks they were giving each other meant what Brin thought they meant.
Still, Brin chose her words carefully. Not wanting to sound silly in front of her sister.
Just in case she had misinterpreted what she thought was going on between Max and
Zack. If Max didn't realize that Zack could be a friend, too, then she would soon enough
on her own. If Zack cared enough about reconnecting with his brothers and sisters to let
Zane bring them here tonight, then he must have the intention of being around a lot more.
For all of them. Then they'd all get to know Zack better, if they didn't know him already.
Including Max.
"We became close," Brin finally finished.
She had no idea how Max was going to take that comment.
If she had, she probably would have laughed before setting her sister straight.
But she didn't know what Max was thinking. She didn't know that Max's stomach had
just dropped or why she'd just gone pale. Brin thought Max's sudden pallor was just in
her imagination; a trick of the firelight.
She noticed that Max had suddenly gotten awful quiet, though.
So she hurried up to finish her point, shrugging again. Maybe all this "sappy" talk was
making her uncomfortable. She knew how it had hurt Max to see her the way she was
when they took her out of Manticore. Perhaps she didn't like being reminded of that
time.
"Anyhow," Brin said. "I guess I just never gave him the credit he deserved. There's a lot
about him I didn't know." That was as close as she'd come to explaining the discovery
she'd made about her brother's capacity for emotion. As she'd already decided to let the
others find out for themselves. "Or maybe he's changed. I don't know. He does seem
different, doesn't he?"
"Different?" Max's voice was quiet.
"Yeah." Then Brin remembered something. "You know, he actually mentioned
something like that. He said he wanted to do things differently than he had before. He
actually apologized for not being…get this… "emotionally available" before. Can you
imagine?"
Max swallowed.
'…different…'
Brin put her arm around her sister's shoulders, not paying any attention to how stiff
they'd become.
"And it's all because of you, sister," she said affectionately. "I couldn't have made it
through this without Zack. I wouldn't even be out if it weren't for you and him. And
Zack wouldn't have been there for me if you hadn't been there for him." Brin shook her
head. "Whatever you told him must have been something. What did you do, threaten to
kick his ass? Because I don't think he'd have been able to develop the kind of
relationship we developed if what you said hadn't made him think about doing things
differently."
'Oh, God!'
Brin had no idea what happened. One second she and Max were sitting beside one
another, talking.
And the next moment, Max was heading for the back door of the cabin. And fast.
Without looking back.
Brin watched her go, with confusion and concern.
"Max?" she called. Max didn't stop. "Max!" Then her sister was gone.
In the kitchen, Jace and Syl turned as Max raced out the back door, exchanging a look.
Jace saw something in Syl's eyes and asked if she knew what was going on.
Syl just shook her head, and went back to scrubbing a dish.
This time, she scrubbed a little too hard. The plate shattered in her hands.
**** ****
