Disclaimer: I don't any of the characters in this story that appear in the hit syndicated TV show, Dark Angel, which are owned by James Cameron. I do, however, own the original characters featured in this story. If you wish to use them, please ask me.
***PLEASE NOTE*** I changed Chapter 1. They're not living in San Francisco anymore. They're in Seattle. I can't even remember why I had them go to San Francisco.
A/N: I HATE neglecting my characters (which I have been…)! I feel so ashamed =( And I know I've been sort of dragging my feet with the plot of this story, but pleeeease be patient with me. Please? Pretty please? I will get all the characters into the story at one point in time and work out all the little bugs that I left after the Siege in due time. The Familiars will make their (brief) appearance, somebody will get pregnant, blah, blah, blah… This is only chapter 3. Patience, my friends =D
H a p p i l y N e v e r A f t e rBy
B R I N
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one!"–Albert Einstein
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 3: Domesticated Wildcats
"Pick?" Eddie stepped into the apartment that, for a short time, had been her home, and looked around. "Are you home?" She walked into the living room and placed her keys on the coffee table, wrinkling her nose at the day-old pizza box with a fly-covered slice sitting inside. Pizza was Pick's main diet, with hamburgers here and there. He figured that if transgenics don't get fat and don't have heart problems, then why eat healthy?
"In here," he called.
Eddie wandered into the kitchen and spotted him underneath the sink fixing a pipe. "What are you doing, Pick?"
"There was a leak," he replied, before putting the finishing touches on his work, which included several dishrags, wet cement, and a paperclip. "That'll fix it." He crawled out from underneath the sink and wiped a hand across his sweaty forehead. "Hey baby."
Standing up on her tiptoes, Eddie gave him a light peck on the lips and then moved past him to the refrigerator. "Did Max call you?" She opened the door and peeked at the empty shelves disapprovingly.
"No, why?"
Eddie almost slammed the door on her head as she whirled around to look at him. "She… she didn't tell you…?"
Pick crossed his arms over his muscular chest and shrugged. "No. I haven't heard from her in awhile, actually… How's she and Alec doing? I mean, Alec's helped me a lot around the apartment lately." He gestured to the once-brown walls that now had a clean coat of baby blue paint on them and the newly-tiled floor.
"Um, they're great," replied Eddie with a nervous little chuckle.
"Oh yeah, I have something to show you!" Pick exclaimed, his smiling widening excitedly.
"What?" Eddie laughed as he started bouncing on his heels like an impatient child.
"It's a surprise. Wait here while I get it ready," he said, taking off his baseball cap and putting it on her head before running off towards the bedroom.
Eddie turned towards the direction he had gone, hugging herself nervously. Max had said that she would call Pick first thing and tell him, so that things between Eddie and him could be a bit smoother at their next meeting… This was bad. Their first fight hadn't been too pretty, but she had no idea how he would react to this. Angry? Sad? Happy? She didn't feel too good about leaving him to live alone, either. After Hank and Junky had…
"Okay, ready!" Pick called from the bedroom, interrupting her thoughts.
Blowing a strand of hair from her eyes, Eddie wandered into the living room to find Pick standing in the hallway leading to the bedroom. "I thought you said it was ready," she said.
Grinning devilishly, he held up a handkerchief. "The finishing touch."
Eddie eyed him suspiciously, then shrugged and allowed him to blindfold her. "Don't you do anything perverted," she warned him playfully as his strong hands, resting on her shoulders, lead her towards the bedroom. "And don't run me into any walls."
"Don't worry about it, babe," he whispered into her ear, his breath tickling her neck. "I won't do anything…" He tickled her side, causing her to skip away from him and nearly collide into the wall.
"Pick!" she yelled, blindly swinging for him and managing to smack his shoulder.
"Sorry, sorry," he said with a laugh. He led her to the doorway and began untying the blindfold. "Surprise!"
Eddie gasped as the cloth fell away from her eyes, revealing what was once a shabby, run-down room with a single mattress as the bed. In place of that shabby room was a grand master bedroom with a canopy bed and nightstands with their own separate lamps. The walls were painted a beautiful shade of green, with silky white drapes hanging over the window. The ceiling had been repaired and painted over with a fresh coat of white paint, as had the door leading to the bathroom.
"Wow…" She stepped into the room, then abruptly looked down to find a beautiful oriental rug hugging the newly-laid white shag carpet. "Wow," she repeated, at a loss for words.
"I won a few bets down at the bar," said Pick as he nervously wrung his hands. "I-I-I thought the place could use a bit of touching up…"
"This is incredible!" exclaimed the anomaly, turning to face him. "You did this all by yourself?"
"Axle helped," admitted the young man with a bashful shrug. "So do you like it?"
"I love it!" Eddie jumped into his arms and kissed him.
Surprised, he fell over backwards into the hallway with her on top. "Hmm… not quite how I imagined it but okay," he joked, putting his hands on her hips.
Eddie propped herself up on her elbows and laughed. "You big lummox."
"I'm hurt," he replied, poking out his bottom lip. "But if I'm a lummox, that means you're an imp."
"Oh shut up." Eddie kissed him again, then rolled off of him and went to sit on the bed. Her mood went from giddy to sour as she realized he had done all this for them… but it wasn't her fault that she was leaving, right? She didn't have a choice.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he took a seat next to her.
"Um… Pick, you know how Max and Alec had that meeting with Social Services?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, they said that all transgenics under the age of 18 need to acquire legal guardians and…"
"…Max and Alec want to take that responsibility for you," Pick finished for her.
"Yes." Eddie let out an exasperated sigh. "And I sort of have to move in with them…" She bit her lip, waiting for his reaction.
Pick stared down at his hands, which were resting in his lap, without expression. They sat in ear-splitting silence for a few minutes, then he sighed and said, "Well I can't say I didn't expect it to happen…"
Eddie's head whipped up. "What?"
"Look, I en't ignorant of political measures like this, unlike most other transgenics. I was the best of the best—I had to know these things. They were fixin' to put me into the political scene and eventually pave my way into the Senate or House, so I learned a lot about how society works, okay?" He stroked her face. "I en't mad."
"Really? I didn't know that…" She narrowed her eyes and poked him in the arm playfully. "How come you never told me?"
"You didn't ask," he replied with a grin. "And don't poke me."
"Oh really…" Eddie's eyes twinkled mischievously. She poked his leg. "Poke."
Pick mock-glared at her. "You did not just…"
She poked him again. "Poke!"
"That's it!" His hand shot out and pinned her to the bed. "You want to play rough? I like girls who play rough," he joked mischievously as he towered over her with one arm on each side of her head.
"I got your rough!" She shoved him off of her and, while he tried to regain his balance, grabbed his hands and spun him around back onto the bed, where she pinned him like a lioness. "Hmm… maybe you should just… stay down."
Pick laughed and kissed her, arms wrapping around her waist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Krit sighed as he tacked the last of the fliers to a building bulletin board saying "ADOPT A KID." They had casually refrained from saying "ADOPT A TRANSGENIC" for fear no one would give them a chance. In fact, they hadn't used the word "transgenic" anywhere on the flier… He put the staple gun back into his pack and grabbed his car keys from his pocket as he stepped outside the building, nearly colliding with Brin.
"Hey," she said, grinning up at him.
"Yo! I haven't seen you in a few weeks, little sister. What're you doing all the way out here?" he asked, referring to the fact that she was currently living in Olympia.
"Oh… I was just visiting Zane," she replied innocently, shifting Ben from one hip to the other.
Krit eyed her suspiciously, but said nothing more of it. Instead, he tapped little Ben on the nose and held his arms out, laughing as the toddler slid into his arms like a doll. "Why hello there! How ya been, buddy?"
"Pfffoo," he replied as drool dribbled down his chin.
"Not quite talking yet, eh?" Krit tickled the toddler's chin and put his free arm around Brin's slim shoulders as they began walking down the street towards his truck. "How old is he again? I can't remember exactly… with all that's been going on lately…"
"Almost a year," she said with a shrug. "He can say 'Mama' and a few other slurred things…"
"Does he say 'Dada' yet?"
"Nope… he doesn't have a Dada yet," reasoned the female X5.
They reached Krit's newly-purchased pickup truck, a 2002 Lightning, and he said, "So where's your car?"
"A few blocks down. We were taking a walk."
"You wanna ride back?"
"Nah… I'll be fine." She took Ben and hugged her brother tightly. "See ya around."
"Yeah…" He watched her go with curiosity, then remembered that Syl had wanted him to be home early. He hopped into the driver's seat, turned on the engine, revved it a few times, and then sped off with the loud rumbling of his engine and the squeal of tires.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eddie lay with her head lying on Pick's arm, watching the TV that Alec had loaned to them—they had refused to receive it free. They were currently watching an old sitcom called Ally McBeal. Pick had turned it on to see a dancing baby one day and they had watched it together every Wednesday night ever since. The catlike anomaly sighed and shifted her head, closed her eyes. The bedroom window was cracked open an inch or two, allowing the sounds of the city streets below—sirens, fires, loud music, yelling—to drift inside.
"How was school?" asked Pick as a commercial for Pepsi came on.
"Got attacked by a mob of angry kids on heroine," she said nonchalantly. "You?"
Pick closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. "Did they do anything to you? Did they touch you?"
Eddie shrugged, sensing the anger coming off him in waves. "Nothing happened, really. They just held me down—" She stroked his arm as it tensed "—and this girl stepped in to save me. That's it."
"X6?"
"Human." Eddie lifted her head to catch his expression, which was blank. "I talked to her again after school… she's rather nice, if you can get past the exterior."
"Have you 'gotten past the exterior'?"
"I'm working on it."
Pick shook his head. "I don't like it… you watch yourself, okay?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jondy opened the door to her apartment and strolled in, tossing her keys onto the coffee table before heading into the kitchen to raid the fridge. However, she hadn't taken two steps across the cheap linoleum when she noticed that the dinner table was covered in a red cloth with a white rose sticking out of a glass vase in the middle. There were two candles on either side of this rose, and two china plates had been set out with napkins neatly folded on top.
"Dinner, milady?" a husky voice whispered in her ear.
The female X5 turned around and narrowed her eyes at Zack, who was holding an expensive-looking bottle of wine with a lazy grin on his face. "What are you up to, Mister?" She poked him in the chest with her forefinger.
"Can't I treat my faaavorite person in the whole wide universe to a nice dinner?"
"Alright, who are you, what have you done with Zack, and what do you want?" she asked, taking a step backward. "Fraud!"
Zack laughed and placed the bottle on the table. "You want the truth?"
"Damn straight, Mister."
"Alright then… are you sure?"
"ZACK!" She whacked him on the side of the head, narrowing her eyes to slits.
A stupid-looking grin resting on his lips, Zack fell to one knee and pulled a tiny black box from his jacket pocket. "Jondy Scott… will you, please, please, please marry me?"
Jondy's jaw dropped with an audible creak, her hand flying to her heart. The color drained from her face and for a moment Zack was sure she was going to faint, but she somehow regained her composure and managed to croak out something akin to "Hell yeah!"
Zack's smile stretched from ear to ear as he wrapped his arms around her waste and picked her up to spin her around. What he hadn't counted on, however, was the cabinet being right there, and accidentally banged the back of her head on it. "Oh shit!" he said, instantly putting her down and examining the spot. "That was graceful."
To ecstatic to care, Jondy simply brushed him away and declared, "I'm ready to eat that dinner you offered. And afterwards…" She stood on her tiptoes and whispered into his ear, causing a bright-red blush to creep into his features.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Pick?"
"Yeah?" He tilted his head down to look at her as he played with a lock of her long dark hair, which was spread over the bed like a silk blanket.
"Ever get lonely?"
"No… I got you, baby," replied Pick. "Why?"
"I mean, you don't hang with Axle so much anymore… like the friendship you had with…" Here she faltered, but after a moment she managed to go on, "Hank and Junky. It was different than the friendship you have with me. Do you miss having that kind of friendship?"
Pick took a moment to think about that. "Well… of course I miss them…" He looked at her face and, seeing as it wasn't the answer she was looking for, reiterated, "Yes, I do miss having my guys around. They were my boys, my posse. If you'll forgive me," he smiled at her hopefully, "they were the ones I went to with most of my problems. Not that I never went to you or anything…"
Eddie laughed and kissed his bare shoulder. "Yes, I understand." She licked her dry lips and rolled over onto her back, off his arm. "I think I'm going to talk to that Diana girl again. I just need… female presence in my life. Can't be Max, can't be Syl or Brin or Jondy… they act too old for me."
"Mmmhmm, I see," Pick grinned, then they both got distracted as Ally McBeal came back on and the subject was dropped.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'll give you… fifty dollars for it," concluded the pawn shop owner.
"Frank, we haggle over this every single week," complained Diana, pushing the necklace closer to him. "Why don't you just give me the sixty bucks and be done with it, eh?"
"You bring a bracelet like this every week, though each time the little charms hanging off of it are different. You're either in on something I don't know about or you have lots of female relatives," grunted Frank, giving her three wrinkled old twenties.
"Let's just say it's the former and be done with it?" suggested the young woman coldly. "The latter couldn't be less true, anyway."
Frank shrugged and took a bite off his Butterfinger bar. "Oh well, but if I get in trouble because you're selling me faulty goods then you're coming down with me, Missy!" he called as she left the store.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"HimynameisX8-999butyoucancallmeJennieJonesbecausethat'swhatmyfriendJoeyJacksoncallsme," said a little girl in one breath, her smile stretching unnaturally wide. She had dirty blonde hair that was probably strawberry blonde when it was washed and large, bush baby-like blue eyes. Her cheeks were a rosy color and she couldn't have been more than three feet tall.
Max stared at the little imp, disturbed by this tiny girl's lung capacity and the elasticity of her mouth and the surrounding muscles. "Okay… Jennie… thank you," she said slowly, then turned to look at the crowd of potential parents sitting behind her—all transgenics. "Anyone?"
A blonde woman, probably from the older batch of X5s, raised her hand. "I'll take her."
Surprised and pleased, Max nodded. "Okay. Head into the back room and Alec will take care of everything for you."
Jennie smiled up at the blonde woman and jumped into her arms happily. "Areyougonnabemymommanow?Ineverhadamamainmylifedidjaknowthat?Ithinkwe'regonnagetalongreallywell,Mama.CanIcallyouMama?"
Max cringed, then sighed in relief as woman and child disappeared into the other room and the chattering stopped.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"How's my girl today?" Krit bent over and picked up little Eve, who was trying to roll around the floor like a barrel. "Syl?"
On cue, Syl emerged from the bedroom with a soiled baby rag slung carelessly over her shoulder, her blonde hair pulled back into a loose bun. "Hey, you!" she exclaimed, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Did you finish posting the fliers?"
"Yeah. I ran into Brin, too," he replied as they moved into the living room.
"Really? I thought she was staying in Olympia now…?"
"Says she's visiting Zane," answered Krit with a knowing grin. "And we all know what happens when Brin visits Zane…"
Syl punched him on the shoulder and took Eve from him. "Be nice. We all know what used to happen when Krit came to visit Syl…" She laughed as the color drained from his face. "See?"
"You told people?!" he cried, smacking a hand to his forehead.
"Only Jondy and Max. How the others found out, I'll never know…" She smiled at him innocently.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Bye, baby," whispered Pick, leaning his forehead against Eddie's.
"It's only until I turn 18 in spring," she replied, trying to lighten the situation.
"We're going to move back to New Hope when this is over. I hear they're building new apartments over the ones the fire burned down. Nice apartments… and I'm going to get us one. Okay?" He kissed her nose. "I promise."
Eddie laughed. "Alright, whatever you say." She looked at her watch and snatched her keys from the coffee table. "Bye."
Pick kept a smile on his face as she turned and trudged out, leaving him to spend the night alone for the first time in almost a year. As she closed the door, he took a seat on the couch and looked around at the suddenly large apartment. Spring suddenly seemed far, far away…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Max didn't finish finding transgenic adults their children until late into the night. Not that was regretful; they had found at least fifty children homes. The couples that were anomaly/X-series were especially anxious to adopt. She couldn't blame them; after all, the widely-accepted idea was that X-series and anomalies couldn't have children together because of conflicting reproduction systems. One couple had adopted four children—two sets of twins. So she closed up the makeshift adoption agency—an abandoned room that had once housed a clothing store—and headed straight home.
Alec, who had been working on gathering up the kids all day, was sitting in the bedroom at his desk looking tired as hell and filling out forms. Since the air conditioner had broken, he was sitting without his shirt in a pair of red-and-white-polka-dotted boxers. His hair was ruffled from running his fingers through it in frustration—something Max often saw him doing—and his muscles were tight with stress.
Sneaking up behind him, Max laid her hands on his shoulders and caused him to jump in surprise. A few papers flew this way and that. "Hello, stranger," she said with a laugh.
"Veery funny," he replied indignantly. "Work out well at the agency?"
"Yep. Fifty-two kids!" declared Max proudly. "Thank God for anxious young adults."
Alec laughed and kissed her on the head. "Eddie stumbled in here a few hours ago and went to sleep in the guest bedroom. Forgot to bring her stuff over, but we can forgive her, right?"
Max took off her belt and unbuttoned the top three buttons of her collared shirt. "Of course we can. I'm going to see if she's okay. Be right back."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eddie was sleeping like a baby as Max entered the room. Instinctively, the young woman was curled into a ball with her tail lazily swishing in front of her nose. The X5 walked over to the side of the bed and noticed something grasped in Eddie's paws. She bent down and peeked at it a little more closely, chuckling softly as she realized what it was.
A picture of Pick.
TBC…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: *Phew* I'm so proud! I had lots n lots of characters in this chapter! If you're bored, don't worry… There will definitely be some action in the next chapter. And by action I mean fighting… violence… you know, Dark Angel action. =)