Chapter 21 Somebody Has Your Back
A/N: Here is a long chapter...yay! Heh, my story is now officially old enough to drink....*cough* okay, anywayz...this is it. After everyone's patience and the people clawing at their computers saying "NO! MORE!" Cree will be reunited with her mother. It won't happen first thing, it'll build, and when it does, it'll knock your emotional socks off. My usual incorporation of music will be in here too, I spent a few days listening to my CD's and cassettes (didn't know they still made those huh?) and the radio trying to find the right background song for the reunion.
A/N #2: I know that Max and Logan didn't have an "I love you" thing b4 they hit it, but I think Max would want to feel first, cause that's who she is, and then after Logan told her he loved her she would get the full effect, akin to Borrowed Time. They didn't say it until the heart breaker at the end. But not to worry, you will all have your cake here.
*****
SEATTLE
LANDINGS HOTEL
ROOM 32
SECTOR 14
8: 55 PM
THE NEXT NIGHT
Ming grabbed the first thing that she found on top of her suitcase, which was a pair of dark denim jeans, and a black sweater. She shoved her badge in her back pocket. She had to leave her issued 9 millimeter in LA because she wasn't on official police business, but she had a small sheath strapped to her ankle which held a silver handled switch blade. She wasn't about to leave all her weapons at home. She knew what the streets could be like.
She clipped her cell phone to one of her belt loops and her Motorola beeper another. Grabbing her silver Oakley's off the small green hotel night table she headed out of her room. Once out on the street, she started looking around. She had decided her best bet to finding out about this chop shop Jack had dumped that car at was to ask some of the "locals" on the street. Going to the police would take too much time, and the people out here were more inclined to tell her more, especially if they though she was interested.
The homeless of Seattle were alive, roaming around, asking for change from the pedestrians and cyclists who were heading through the sector stops.
Ming looked ahead of her /Damn/ She would need a sector pass to get through the checkpoint. Her police officer status wouldn't hold up in this city. She looked around the road leading up to the sector stop, finding several people for what she needed, hawking phony passes. This being the 21st century they could scan a small picture she had on her to the pass in about twenty minutes. She knew, she busted some people doing it on Hollywood Blvd.
Ming veered off her course on the road, heading over to a tall man, wearing a black bomber jacket and red bandana. The guy was in his 20s, considerably younger then Ming, but she caught him looking at her, she was still a woman, and still attractive.
"Help you with somethin' suga?"
"I'm not your suga" Ming set him straight to keep him focused "You into identification?"
The guy looked in both directions, to make sure they were no cops around, at least to his knowledge "Yeah honey I'm a one stop. Whatcha need? I got drivers licence, green cards-"
"I need a sector pass" Ming cut to the chase.
"You got a photo?"
Ming answered him by pulling out a picture of her and her daughters taken a few years ago, but her image looked the same. "What do you want for it?"
"How much you got?"
"Not what I asked" Ming was forever a cop
"45" he told her "Cash money"
"Give you thirty" Ming showed him the twenty and ten dollar bill "You know twenty's the going rate" she ratted out his plans "Sure you won't find a better cut, bet you're not getting your money's worth on the other sales anyway"
"Fine" the man agreed with a sigh, money was money. He took the picture from her. "Give me a name, fake, alias, your aunties I don't care"
"Michelle Ling" Ming gave him a phony name off the top of her head, this was probably gonna get traced, and she had enough to deal with.
Three minutes later she had her pass, still hot from the scan. "Welcome to the sector life Ling"
Ming took the pass from him.
"You sure that's all you need?"
Ming blew him off "Get off it" she headed back out on the street.
She was waved through the sector point without incident. Mainly because there was a line behind her about as long as the Great Wall of China, and the sector cops wanted to get done early like anyone else.
She walked through the streets, looking around the area. A dark haired woman looked over at her from the side of the road where she was standing with an old shopping cart full of blankets and second hand pillows. She noticed Ming immediately, and called out to her
(Spoken in Taiwanese) "You buy a blanket?"
(woman continues to speak in Tawainese throughout rest of converstation)
Now Ming's parents were from mainland China, and as a little girl she had been taught to speak Mandarin Chinese, not Taiwanese, but her grandmother had been from Taiwan, and use to tutor her granddaughter in the other Chinese language after she came to the states. She wanted Ming to learn about all aspects of her family.
"Not today" Ming answered the woman in Taiwanese, looking over at the small stack of hand woven blankets. "You know a place where they sell cheap car parts?" she hadn't spoken this language since she was ten, and her sentences were choppy, mixing Mandarin words with Taiwanese. She only hoped the woman could understand her.
"Cheap?" The lady scrutinized her "You here for a bust?"
"No" Ming held up her hand "I don't have any money for a good carburetor, I just want to get a good deal" she tried to quell the woman's fear that she was with the sector cops waiting to throw people in jail.
The woman still looked at her uneasy, but with a slight hint of giving in. "Sector 12, old market warehouse" she kept glancing up and down the road to make sure no cops heard her. "Toris Street
They give you cheap, ask no questions, most of stuff is hot"
"I understand" Ming reassured her "Toris you said?"
"Yes"
Ming thanked her and headed out on foot to Sector 12.
*****
SECTOR 12
TORIS STREET
Ming slid opened the aluminum door to the warehouse. No one really noticed the noise because of the blasting beat and lyrics to some Metalica song booming out of megawatt speakers.
"Hey!" Ming shouted to gain people's attention.
One of the "workers" a young brown haired man, pulled his head out of the 99 Cobra he was taking the pistons out of. "Who the hell are you? How'd you get in here?" he dropped the tork wrench onto a metal tray table beside the hood of the car.
"I read the billboards," Ming snapped back.
"Well read my face girl" the kid approached her "Get the hell out"
"Not until I get some information outta you" she spat the words at him /Prick/
"Why the fuck should I tell you anything?" his voice rose, he stepped closer.
This action gave Ming the upper hand, and she shoved him forcefully down onto the open hood of the Cobra. Before he could do anything else, she pinned him down with her arm across his neck.
"I don't have a lot of patience. Now you either tell me what I wanna know, or I kick your ass up and down the block." she drove her point home by adding more pressure on his neck. "You have a guy who regulars you. Prick son-of-a-bitch that goes by the name of Jack, came in here with a Firebird for you to break down"
*So where the f*ck you at?
Punk shut the f*ck up
And back the f*ck up
Before we f*ck this track up*
The other "workers" sat back and watched the scene unfold, doing absolutely nothing to intervene.
"What's it to you woman?" he growled at her
Ming grabbed his balls through his jeans in her hand and crushed it in between her hand "You keep talkin' it keeps droppin' I wanna know where Warren is" she got up in his face "Answer me!"
*Tell me what you gonna do now
Breathe in, now breathe out
Hands up, now hands down
Back up, back up*
Ming pulled her knife out and replaced it with her hand on his nuts "Think REALLY hard"
*Don't know" he got out.
Who's in, now who's out
Hands up, now hands down
Back up, back up*
"Last I heard he got himself arrested" the guy finally told her the whole thing, at least what he thought. He had heard one of his guys on the inside of Seattle lock up say they saw Jack there
"Shoulda just told me that the first time" she shoved him back down once again and then let him go, leaving before he had a chance to react.
*Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'
Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'
Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'
Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin' *
*****
SEATTLE CITY JAIL
"Yes" Det. Sung looked up at the woman who had come into the station.
"Here to see a prisoner" Ming answered "Jack Warren"
Sung stood up "And you are?"
Ming took out her badge "LAPD"
Sung looked a little confused, but got the key to the cell out of his drawer "Is he being indited?"
"Should he be?" Ming answered his question with a question.
"Not to my knowledge" Sung told her "He's not even really a prisoner. He's under protective custody"
"Protective from whom?"
"Someone with a mark on him" Sung answered "I'm just keepin' him under guard until he can be of use to some clients of mine" he led Ming to the cell.
Ming followed Sung to the drunk tank where Max had dumped Warren off.
"Wakey wakey" Sung tapped on the bars to rouse Jack from his nap on the cell cot.
"What the hell is it now?" Jack rubbed his eyes, sitting up on the rusty metal cot.
Seeing Jack, the looser that she was certain kidnapped Cree, seeing him sitting there alive and well, while her daughter was suffering somewhere or even dead enraged her beyond anything she ever felt before.
As soon as Sung had the door opened Ming tore into the cell, heading straight for him.
"Son-of-a-bitch!" she grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him into the wall, "Where is she!"
Jack had been somewhat sleepy before, but after finding himself in his current situation, became wide-awake. "Long time no see officer"
Ming backed off for a second, only to punch him with a strong right hook across his cheekbone. He landed on the floor, but she yanked him back against the wall in short order. "You better start talkin' Jack what did you do with her!"
"She's dead" Warren looked Ming straight in the face and told this lie. "Sorry"
Ming was reeling "You're a liar" her heart pounded in her chest, as she furiously searched every fiber of her being to see if any part of her believed it. This was her daughter, she would feel it, she knew it.
"Seriously" Jack went on "I dropped her off with some guys of mine-"
"Shut up" Ming snapped back
"The kind who have dicks for brains-"
"Shut UP!"
"They had fun with her, took her to a ring, but you can only get so much use out of a slut-"
"SHUT UP!!" Ming had heard enough, in one sweeping move she threw Jack to the floor, and pounced on top of him and proceeded to beat the living hell outta him with her fists. "Fucking little prick!" each word was punctuated with a blow to his face.
An officer grabbed Ming's shoulders trying to pull her off Jack.
"Ma'am back off!" he grabbed Ming's arm, but she yanked it out of his grip.
"You think this is a game-" Ming growled low and ferocious "You little shit bastard! You hurt my baby, you used her like she was trash, that means you hurt me, and on top of that you lied right to my face you fuckin' asshole! I swear to you what I find out what you did to her I will cause you the most unimaginable pain" she banged his head down on the concrete floor "But if you don't tell me where she is I'll just kill you!"
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
"Logan?" Max spoke the words as she opened the door to his apartment and stepped inside
"In here" his voice called out to her
She followed it and found him, not in his computer room, but sitting on one of his two overstuffed couches
"Hey" She offered him a smile "Takin' a break?"
"Not really" Logan set her straight
"Oh" She came over to a chair and sat in it. "Is that-" she turned to face the stereo system, listening to the music coming out of it.
"That what?" Logan asked her, wanting her to elaborate.
"It's Mozart's Requiem" Max finished, listening to the haunting mass choir melody.
Logan sensed something "Does it bother you?"
Max shook her head "Manticore just played it one time too many"
"I'll change it-" Logan mentally kicked himself for making this music choice. He switched the CD changer to another CD he had in the player.
"Better?" he turned to her
Max could pick up the faint beginning string plucks of Sibelius' masterpiece "Valse Triste"
"S'good" she told him.
Logan reclaimed his seat "So, about last night-"
Max looked at him "Though we got this cleared"
"We did" Logan reassured her "I-" paused "I just don't want you to think I slept with you just because of the moment. You mean more then that to me"
"What are you tryin' to say?"
"Max I-"
The phone rang at his office
"Get it" Max told him
Frustrated, Logan got up and went to answer the call.
"Yeah? Oh hey, yeah, hang on a sec. Max" he waved her over "For you its Cree"
Max walked over and took the phone from him.
"Cree?"
"Max"
"What's up?"
"Nothing really, my car just blew a tire out here, and since I stole it there's no spare. Anyway not to sound girly, but its dark, and my head lights are about to give-"
"I'll come pick you up"
"I don't want to ruin your night Max" Cree told her
"Forget my night, it's bad outside at night and you know it, so just tell me where you are-"
"Ty's working tonight I was just driving out to see-"
"Bitch, you better drop it-" someone else's voice came over the line
"Cree-" Max heard it too.
There was a sound of something metal hitting something and then static.
"Cree!" Max shouted into the phone. She kept calling her name, but go no answer
"What happened?" Logan asked her after she slammed the phone down.
"I don't know. She said she was on her to ladder 12" Max started walking out of his office "I have to go"
"Go where?" Logan followed her out "Can you give me some specifics?"
"She's in trouble" Max whirled on him "Just trust me" she headed out to the front door and started to open it, but Logan closed it shut again with his hand.
"You know just because we hit it doesn't give you the right to act this way-" she was cut off when he leaned over and kissed her hard. He let go of the door and framed her face with his hands.
*They say this love wasn't meant to be
Two people from two different worlds we wasn't meant to be
It musta been fate you were sent to me
We'll make it through these hard times eventually*
He broke apart and looked at her "I love you Max, that's what gives me the right to act this way"
Max was speechless at his proclamation. "I have to do this Logan. She's my friend"
"I know," he told her "But you need to be careful, super soldier genes don't prevent you from getting hurt."
"Some things are worth gettin' your ass knocked around for"
*Stand and fight
Walk by faith and not by sight
We're all the same color when we turn out the lights
I'll take the sunshine with the pain
We all breathe the same air so we all the same*
"Max-"
This time it was she who cut him off by returning his earlier kiss with one of her own. "I love you too" She echoed his words, finally saying them out loud. "But I have to-"
"Just go" he finished for her.
They kissed one more time, quickly, before she was out the door, and this time he didn't stop her.
*To get my kids out of the hood that's my hope and dream
To raise my son to be a solider by any means*
I see your true colors shining though, (straight up)
I see your true colors and that's why I love you baby
*****
Max slowed her cycle when she came up Cree's car abandoned on the shoulder of the road. She dismounted her bike and walked over to the vehicle. She felt the hood with her gloved hand, it was still warm, an indication that Cree hadn't been here that long before she made the call.
Max looked around for tire tracks. She found one set in the soft dirt, but none that weren't a match to the pattern made by Cree's tires, and none led out from the car's current location. She caught the sight of the something metal lying in the dirt.
On closer inspection she found it to be Cree's small cell phone. The dirt revealed signs of a struggle along with a few drops of human blood. Judging by one way one of the indents in the mud was deeper then the others Max concluded that Cree was most likely knocked to the ground. She presumed unconscious because there was only one set of footprints in the dirt leading away from the area, and they left a deeper impression in the mud then normal, suggesting that who ever had been here had carried something or someone relatively heavy, causing their combined weight to sink the carrier's shoes into the mud.
The drops of blood left a small trail, but stopped after about a foot. Max looked around the area where the blood stopped, scanning the night sky with her cat's eyes. The footprints continued, but became mingled with two other sets leading in different directions. One set led to the water of a retention pond, another to the lighted parking lot of a bar. The set Max had been following led straight to a warehouse. Observing it for a minute, she realized that it was the same place she had been shot at two days ago.
With quiet agility she crept up to the warehouse, peeking into the small window in the door. From her angle she could see a tall sandy haired colored man staring at someone tied to a chair, someone with long black hair. She was faced away from Max, but she could make out the black silhouette of a dragon tattoo in the half-light.
*****
Cree felt the blood trickle down her nose. Her head didn't feel like it was going to explode anymore, but there was a throbbing headache right behind her eyes. Above her the sandy haired man, she had yet to learn his name, was standing above her, slapping a blackjack into his palm.
"What the hell do you thing you're doing?" he paced in front of her, staring her down, like she was under police interrogation. "Did you think for one second that no one noticed what you did?"
"I didn't exactly have the best view" she finally had gotten the chance to tell of at least one off the men who had befouled her.
The sandy haired man got pissed off and he slapped her across the face. "You are not in the position to have a smart mouth slut"
Cree sucked up the blood from the split lip she received from the slap and spit it in her captives face.
"You bitch!" he raised the black jack to slam it on her face, but at the last second she head butted him and sent him reeling to the floor.
Behind the chair Cree's hands were a fury of activity trying to loosen the ropes the bound her wrists. She worked feverishly, despite the rope burn her movements were producing.
She felt two hands, not her own, grab her rope and work the knots.
"Max" Cree could smell the cherry scent her friend always used. "Ever worked with knots before?"
"You kidding?" Max returned, "I was a girl scout" she broke the rope with one tug, very unlike the Girl Scout status she claimed to have. Cree helped her unloop the remains from her wrist.
The man had since recovered from the blow and launched himself at Max, knocking her to the ground. "You're asking for it now girly girl!" he raised the blackjack in the air.
Max flipped over in one powerful move and landed the man on his back three feet away. He recovered and picked up the fallen blackjack.
She caught it this time when he swung it at her, and kicked him square in the face. "You never learn do you?" she slammed the blackjack into his balls, sliding him to the floor.
Suddenly a large, ominous creaking was heard as one of the old dome shaped aluminum lighting fixtures broke off from its rotted wiring and fell to the floor, along with part of the roof that supported it, blocking the only exit. The popping of the light bulb in the fixture sparked, catching onto loose rotting boards and sparking them on fire. The flames quickly spread around one side of the warehouse, where the bottom of the wooden stairs became perfect fodder for it. The flames rose four feet high, engulfing the door in a wall of fire.
*****
LADDER 12
FIREMAN'S LIVING QUARTERS
"Ty" Logan called out to the man he met last height
Ty turned "Logan, something wrong?"
"Is Cree here?" Logan asked him, coming over to the couch where Ty was sitting.
Ty shook his head "I haven't seen her since last night" he looked pack over to the Steelers game playing out on the 20 inch RCA. "Man turn it up"
"Max said she was on her way to see you"
"I haven't heard anything bout it" Ty told him, not taking his eyes off the game
"Something happened tonight" Logan went straight for the kill "She called me at my house-"
"Isn't it allowed for your girlfriend to call you at home?"
"No-" Logan cut in "Not Max, she was with me. I'm talking about Cree. She had a flat and Max offered to pick her up, but the line went dead. Max went to get her, and I haven't heard from either of them since."
"Max is a big girl Logan" Ty reassured him "She can find her way home at night"
"You're not listening!" Logan got upset "Max and Cree were cut off in their conversation, there was nothing wrong with the line. I think something happened to Cree-"
"Fire in progress at 34 Fletcher Ave-" a dispatcher's voice came over the intercom sitting on the countertop in the fireman's kitchen.
"Move it guys lets go!" There was a hustle as the fireman cut off the TV and went to answer the call.
"Fletcher?" Logan said the name of the location out loud.
"Yeah, listen Logan, I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you but I have to do my job-"
"Ty" Logan broke in again "Two nights ago-" he tried to think of a way to word this to get his point across without revealing Cree's history to him yet. "Cree has this old boyfriend whose been stalking her. Max went out for her once at this warehouse where he worked to tell him to back off and he shot her. Fletcher Ave, it's the same location. Cree is over there, I know it-" and then Logan voiced the part that meant the most to him "and so is Max"
Ty did do a step back at the thought of Cree being in danger, but he didn't break much in his stride of "fireman adrenaline" "I believe you man, but I still have to go now-"
"I'm coming with you" Logan informed
"There's not enough room in the rig for-"
"I have my car" Logan interrupted again "And I'm going"
"Fine" Ty finally agreed "But you have to keep up"
*****
Ming shoved her hands in her coat pockets, staring up at the night sky, running the conversation with Jack over in her head again. /Prick, the fucking prick/ She was so close, she knew it, and even though her gut feeling told her Cree was still alive, she was so tired, tired of missing her, longing for her, being without her. A small part of her died the night she went missing three years ago. She didn't think she could bear feeling this way forever.
*Why, why, why, why
There you are
In a darkened room
And you're all alone
Looking out the window
Your heart is cold and lost the will to love Like a broken arrow*
Frustrated, she dug out her switchblade and threw it hard against the crack in the mortar of a brick wall. The blade stuck in the crack, resonating a slight sound from the force of the throw.
Angrily, she pulled the blade out and threw it again, hitting the same mark. This time when she went to pull it out, she caught the smell of smoke in the air. She backed away from the brick wall of the building she was at and moved to the end of the sidewalk.
She could see a blanket of smoke covering the stars in the night sky, and the glow of bright orange flames. Forever a cop, Ming pulled out her Motorola and dialed the fire department.
"Yeah, I'm at the corner of-" she looked above her head to the street sign "the corner of Fletcher and 32nd street, and I see a blaze about thirty yards in-"
"Yes ma'am" the dispatcher cut in "we know about that. We have a unit out to the scene already"
Ming simply hung up after that, looking once again at the fire raging. She felt useless just standing on the sidewalk. She was never a bystander, so after putting away her phone she took off in a sprint towards the flames to see if there was any way she could help
*Here I stand in the shadows
(In the shadows) Come to me, come to me Can't you see that
Nobody wants to be lonely
Nobody wants to cry
My body's longing to hold you
So bad it hurts inside
Time is precious and it's slipping away
And I've been waiting for you all of my life
Nobody wants to be lonely so why
Why don't you let me love you*
****
"We gotta go!" Max shouted to Cree above the roar of the flames
"I know!" Cree responded "But how?" smoke was filling her eyes, and she wiped them furiously with her jacket to keep the falling soot out of them. "The exit's blocked!"
"Back off from the flames!" Max called out to her "I have an idea!" she ran to one of the walls of the building.
The guy Max had beaten up now stood up and saw what they were doing "Hey!" he picked up the fallen light with the intent to throw it at them. "Ahh!" the fixture extremely hot from the heat of the flames scorched and blistered his hands
"Get down!" Max shouted to Cree, who ducked with her seconds before the fixture smashed above their heads, showering them with broken pieces. "We gotta move fast before he tries that again!" Max was now talking like the soldier she was bred to be. "This wood is old and the fire weakened it more. Too much weight against it and the whole damn thing's gonna fall on us"
"Just tell me what you want to do!" Cree told her "I'm open to anything"
"Knock out two bottom boards" Max started giving out orders "Make a big enough hole for a person to slide through. The woods rotting it should come right out. Don't do it near of the long beams, their load barring"
Cree nodded. "Let's go then"
"On three" Max told her, readying her hands for the impact "One two three-" her and Cree punched through the wood, but Max's hand hit something solid.
"Shit" she cursed at the pain, but more at realizing what it was. "We have to try somewhere else, there's a propane tank here. It's gonna blow before we can get out." She started looking around, trying to find a way out. Her eyes caught sight of the old staircase, have enveloped in flames.
"C'mon, take the stairs"
Cree was hesitant, but Max yanked her by her hand "Now, before it collapses!"
Cree got over her fear in a hurry and followed Max hap hazardly up the crumbling stairs. The top three stairs were gone so they both had to jump over the flaming gap, easy for Max, but not for Cree, who Max had to whip around and catch with one hand before she plummeted below.
The reached the small landing at the top of the stairs and Max elbowed out a window. Next to the sill was an electric wire that ran along side the building, and that, at its lowest point was ten feet from the ground
This is the only way out" Max informed "I'm guessin' we got about two minutes before that propane blows this place ski high. So whatever fears you have about sliding down a cable forty feet above the ground you better get over now"
Let's just do it before I do something stupid" Cree told her.
Take off your belt and your sweater" Max told her, watching as Cree stripped down to her tight blue v-neck thin tank top. "Wrap the sweater around the belt for an insulator, we might spark the wire. Now hand it to me" she took the belt from Cree. "Hopefully this will hold us up" Max longed for her cross bow, but she had to make due with this if she didn't want to blow with the building. She looped the belt over the wire and secured it on the third to the last hole. She gave Cree one last look "You're gonna have to dangle by my hand, the force of your weight should give us a faster downward pull. Keep your other arm at your side and your legs together!" Max grabbed onto the loop with one hand, and held the other out to Cree. "Go!" she could hear the creaking and breaking of the boards she was standing on.
Cree grabbed her hand, and felt herself falling.
*****
Ming got to the scene of the fire at the same time a fire engine pulled up. She headed towards the building just as one of the firemen was climbing out of the truck. She went around the back before any of them could see her and tell her to stop.
"Move move!" Ty shouted to the rest of his team. Him and three others got their hoses positioned and started spraying the building down while two other firemen, gas masked up to go inside the blaze.
"Ryan, is there anyone inside?" Ty called into his radio.
"Can't tell yet, there's too much smoke. Holy shit, there's a propane tank here man!"
"How close?" Ty called back
"Flames all around the edge!"
"Do you see two women in-" Ty didn't get the last words out before an earth rocking explosion knocked Ty and the crew outside to the ground.
"Max!" Logan came jogging up to the blast site. He had seen her motorcycle parked back down the road. To everyone's horror the building collapsed under itself in a fiery inferno.
"Ryan come back!" Ty was shouting in his radio "You there?" his voice was frantic.
A few minutes of static, then "We got out man, I saw someone before it blew, but I couldn't get to them in time"
Ty received the grim news, seeing Logan approach him he responded back "Was it a woman?"
"I couldn't tell man, smoke was too thick."
The news was very unsettling to Logan, and to Ty as well judging by the look in his eyes. "We don't know it was either of them Logan" Ty tried to sound professional.
From the edge of the building there was movement. "Well I'll be dammed" Jerry, the fireman beside Ty called out "Ty check it out"
Ty looked. Logan looked. Two figures emerged from the smoke, covered in soot, and smelling of smoke.
Logan's heart started beating again when he saw who it was.
"Told you I'd be careful" Max stepped over to Logan and found herself swept up in a hug.
"No offense Max, but you kind of stink" Logan was trying to be light, now that it was all over.
Before she could talk smack to him he kissed her, long and passionate, making the fireman hoot at them.
Cree approached Ty "Guess I set the world on fire"
Ty, being a civil servant and a gentleman, took off his fireman's jacket and put over her form, because it had started to lightly rain, which would be good to put out the flames.
"Are you okay?" he asked her
"Not really" she wasn't like Max
He touched her head "You're bleeding"
She responded by wiping some blood off with her hand. "Forgot about that"
"Here" he pushed a gloved hand to her forehead, making her flinch
"Oww"
"Don't be such a baby Cree"
*****
Ming couldn't get to the building in time before it fell. She headed back out to the front. She saw "civilians" outside with the fireman, and she was glad that some of them made it out.
She turned to leave, but then stopped, hearing something familiar.
"Don't be such a baby Cree"
"Watch that"
That voice, Ming pushed her way through the crowd, looking.
*****
Cree looked up, catching a flash of a vision /Damn I'm seeing things again/ She saw a woman, black hair, she looked so much like her. She had seen too many of these visions in her life. This one was so real, almost exactly like her-
*****
Ming stopped dead in her tracks, words disappeared from her mouth, she tried again.
"Cree-" her voice was hesitant, but she tried again
"Cree"
* Can you hear my voice
Do you hear my song
It's a serenade
So your heart can find me And suddenly you're flying down the stairs
Into my arms, baby*
Her vision talked, then it hit her like a ton of brick, it wasn't a dream. The woman was pushing her way through the fireman.
"Cree wait!" Ty called after her when she suddenly started to move away from him.
Cree was walking, and then she was running. Time seemed to take forever.
She couldn't talk she just ran
*Before I start going crazy
Run to me, run to me
'Cause I'm dying*
****
Both met in the center in a death lock, choking off each other's air.
"My baby" Ming's words were half there in her sobs "Oh god, my baby, you came back" she pulled apart and kissed her everywhere, taking in her face, her eyes, everything she remembered, and new things that she missed. "you came back"
"Mom, how did you find me?" Cree thought she would never get to say those words again. "Why-how?"
"I have no damn idea" Ming told her straight out
This made Cree laugh slightly, before she threw herself at her mom again "I missed you mom god- I've been so screwed-" her words drifted into sobs
"I know" Ming told her, hugging her like she would never let her go "It's okay baby, my sweet baby I love you so much"
*Nobody wants to be lonely
Nobody wants to cry
My body's longing to hold you
So bad it hurts inside
Time is precious and it's slipping away
And I've been waiting for you all of my life
Nobody wants to be lonely so why don't you let me love you*
"Mom why us? Why me?" Cree looked up at her mother, eyes so much like hers, wet with tears.
"I don't know-" Ming could only give her an honest answer, hugging her closer.
*...And I feel so light
This is all I want to feel tonight
And I feel so light
Tonight and the rest of my life
Tonight and the rest of my life"
*****
I was so anxious to get to the reunion scene you have know I idea, I wanted it to come across as sweet, but not something like coming home from summer camp, I mean Ming thought she could be dead, it had to be heart wrenching.
Max and Logan said the "L" word..yay..i did it to what I think it would be like for them..with who they are it wouldn't be Champaign and roses. Logan would try that, but something would get in the way..so this was my spin
This isn't the end of the story, there's still Ty, and Cree's other family, and they have to be dealt with. I don't think I can even cover Cree's demons in this story so...yay! There will most likely be a sequel dealing with the aftermath of Cree's time in Seattle as well as Logan and Max's shack up, AND (don't you love it when there's an "and"?) Max never told Cree about Manticore, and that might be a good avenue to explore.
Hope you cried..that was the idea.
I started a trend with the last chap, so here are the songs in order again:
(Chop shop scene) "Rollin" Limp Bizkit
(Max and Logan talking in Logan's apartment) "True Colors" (Save the Last Dance Soundtrack)
(Ming alone by wall and reunion) "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" Ricky Martin and Christina Agulara
(end of story) "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" Nina Gordon (off "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "Dark Angel" soundtracks)
Like a broken arrow
A/N: Here is a long chapter...yay! Heh, my story is now officially old enough to drink....*cough* okay, anywayz...this is it. After everyone's patience and the people clawing at their computers saying "NO! MORE!" Cree will be reunited with her mother. It won't happen first thing, it'll build, and when it does, it'll knock your emotional socks off. My usual incorporation of music will be in here too, I spent a few days listening to my CD's and cassettes (didn't know they still made those huh?) and the radio trying to find the right background song for the reunion.
A/N #2: I know that Max and Logan didn't have an "I love you" thing b4 they hit it, but I think Max would want to feel first, cause that's who she is, and then after Logan told her he loved her she would get the full effect, akin to Borrowed Time. They didn't say it until the heart breaker at the end. But not to worry, you will all have your cake here.
*****
SEATTLE
LANDINGS HOTEL
ROOM 32
SECTOR 14
8: 55 PM
THE NEXT NIGHT
Ming grabbed the first thing that she found on top of her suitcase, which was a pair of dark denim jeans, and a black sweater. She shoved her badge in her back pocket. She had to leave her issued 9 millimeter in LA because she wasn't on official police business, but she had a small sheath strapped to her ankle which held a silver handled switch blade. She wasn't about to leave all her weapons at home. She knew what the streets could be like.
She clipped her cell phone to one of her belt loops and her Motorola beeper another. Grabbing her silver Oakley's off the small green hotel night table she headed out of her room. Once out on the street, she started looking around. She had decided her best bet to finding out about this chop shop Jack had dumped that car at was to ask some of the "locals" on the street. Going to the police would take too much time, and the people out here were more inclined to tell her more, especially if they though she was interested.
The homeless of Seattle were alive, roaming around, asking for change from the pedestrians and cyclists who were heading through the sector stops.
Ming looked ahead of her /Damn/ She would need a sector pass to get through the checkpoint. Her police officer status wouldn't hold up in this city. She looked around the road leading up to the sector stop, finding several people for what she needed, hawking phony passes. This being the 21st century they could scan a small picture she had on her to the pass in about twenty minutes. She knew, she busted some people doing it on Hollywood Blvd.
Ming veered off her course on the road, heading over to a tall man, wearing a black bomber jacket and red bandana. The guy was in his 20s, considerably younger then Ming, but she caught him looking at her, she was still a woman, and still attractive.
"Help you with somethin' suga?"
"I'm not your suga" Ming set him straight to keep him focused "You into identification?"
The guy looked in both directions, to make sure they were no cops around, at least to his knowledge "Yeah honey I'm a one stop. Whatcha need? I got drivers licence, green cards-"
"I need a sector pass" Ming cut to the chase.
"You got a photo?"
Ming answered him by pulling out a picture of her and her daughters taken a few years ago, but her image looked the same. "What do you want for it?"
"How much you got?"
"Not what I asked" Ming was forever a cop
"45" he told her "Cash money"
"Give you thirty" Ming showed him the twenty and ten dollar bill "You know twenty's the going rate" she ratted out his plans "Sure you won't find a better cut, bet you're not getting your money's worth on the other sales anyway"
"Fine" the man agreed with a sigh, money was money. He took the picture from her. "Give me a name, fake, alias, your aunties I don't care"
"Michelle Ling" Ming gave him a phony name off the top of her head, this was probably gonna get traced, and she had enough to deal with.
Three minutes later she had her pass, still hot from the scan. "Welcome to the sector life Ling"
Ming took the pass from him.
"You sure that's all you need?"
Ming blew him off "Get off it" she headed back out on the street.
She was waved through the sector point without incident. Mainly because there was a line behind her about as long as the Great Wall of China, and the sector cops wanted to get done early like anyone else.
She walked through the streets, looking around the area. A dark haired woman looked over at her from the side of the road where she was standing with an old shopping cart full of blankets and second hand pillows. She noticed Ming immediately, and called out to her
(Spoken in Taiwanese) "You buy a blanket?"
(woman continues to speak in Tawainese throughout rest of converstation)
Now Ming's parents were from mainland China, and as a little girl she had been taught to speak Mandarin Chinese, not Taiwanese, but her grandmother had been from Taiwan, and use to tutor her granddaughter in the other Chinese language after she came to the states. She wanted Ming to learn about all aspects of her family.
"Not today" Ming answered the woman in Taiwanese, looking over at the small stack of hand woven blankets. "You know a place where they sell cheap car parts?" she hadn't spoken this language since she was ten, and her sentences were choppy, mixing Mandarin words with Taiwanese. She only hoped the woman could understand her.
"Cheap?" The lady scrutinized her "You here for a bust?"
"No" Ming held up her hand "I don't have any money for a good carburetor, I just want to get a good deal" she tried to quell the woman's fear that she was with the sector cops waiting to throw people in jail.
The woman still looked at her uneasy, but with a slight hint of giving in. "Sector 12, old market warehouse" she kept glancing up and down the road to make sure no cops heard her. "Toris Street
They give you cheap, ask no questions, most of stuff is hot"
"I understand" Ming reassured her "Toris you said?"
"Yes"
Ming thanked her and headed out on foot to Sector 12.
*****
SECTOR 12
TORIS STREET
Ming slid opened the aluminum door to the warehouse. No one really noticed the noise because of the blasting beat and lyrics to some Metalica song booming out of megawatt speakers.
"Hey!" Ming shouted to gain people's attention.
One of the "workers" a young brown haired man, pulled his head out of the 99 Cobra he was taking the pistons out of. "Who the hell are you? How'd you get in here?" he dropped the tork wrench onto a metal tray table beside the hood of the car.
"I read the billboards," Ming snapped back.
"Well read my face girl" the kid approached her "Get the hell out"
"Not until I get some information outta you" she spat the words at him /Prick/
"Why the fuck should I tell you anything?" his voice rose, he stepped closer.
This action gave Ming the upper hand, and she shoved him forcefully down onto the open hood of the Cobra. Before he could do anything else, she pinned him down with her arm across his neck.
"I don't have a lot of patience. Now you either tell me what I wanna know, or I kick your ass up and down the block." she drove her point home by adding more pressure on his neck. "You have a guy who regulars you. Prick son-of-a-bitch that goes by the name of Jack, came in here with a Firebird for you to break down"
*So where the f*ck you at?
Punk shut the f*ck up
And back the f*ck up
Before we f*ck this track up*
The other "workers" sat back and watched the scene unfold, doing absolutely nothing to intervene.
"What's it to you woman?" he growled at her
Ming grabbed his balls through his jeans in her hand and crushed it in between her hand "You keep talkin' it keeps droppin' I wanna know where Warren is" she got up in his face "Answer me!"
*Tell me what you gonna do now
Breathe in, now breathe out
Hands up, now hands down
Back up, back up*
Ming pulled her knife out and replaced it with her hand on his nuts "Think REALLY hard"
*Don't know" he got out.
Who's in, now who's out
Hands up, now hands down
Back up, back up*
"Last I heard he got himself arrested" the guy finally told her the whole thing, at least what he thought. He had heard one of his guys on the inside of Seattle lock up say they saw Jack there
"Shoulda just told me that the first time" she shoved him back down once again and then let him go, leaving before he had a chance to react.
*Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'
Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'
Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'
Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin' *
*****
SEATTLE CITY JAIL
"Yes" Det. Sung looked up at the woman who had come into the station.
"Here to see a prisoner" Ming answered "Jack Warren"
Sung stood up "And you are?"
Ming took out her badge "LAPD"
Sung looked a little confused, but got the key to the cell out of his drawer "Is he being indited?"
"Should he be?" Ming answered his question with a question.
"Not to my knowledge" Sung told her "He's not even really a prisoner. He's under protective custody"
"Protective from whom?"
"Someone with a mark on him" Sung answered "I'm just keepin' him under guard until he can be of use to some clients of mine" he led Ming to the cell.
Ming followed Sung to the drunk tank where Max had dumped Warren off.
"Wakey wakey" Sung tapped on the bars to rouse Jack from his nap on the cell cot.
"What the hell is it now?" Jack rubbed his eyes, sitting up on the rusty metal cot.
Seeing Jack, the looser that she was certain kidnapped Cree, seeing him sitting there alive and well, while her daughter was suffering somewhere or even dead enraged her beyond anything she ever felt before.
As soon as Sung had the door opened Ming tore into the cell, heading straight for him.
"Son-of-a-bitch!" she grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him into the wall, "Where is she!"
Jack had been somewhat sleepy before, but after finding himself in his current situation, became wide-awake. "Long time no see officer"
Ming backed off for a second, only to punch him with a strong right hook across his cheekbone. He landed on the floor, but she yanked him back against the wall in short order. "You better start talkin' Jack what did you do with her!"
"She's dead" Warren looked Ming straight in the face and told this lie. "Sorry"
Ming was reeling "You're a liar" her heart pounded in her chest, as she furiously searched every fiber of her being to see if any part of her believed it. This was her daughter, she would feel it, she knew it.
"Seriously" Jack went on "I dropped her off with some guys of mine-"
"Shut up" Ming snapped back
"The kind who have dicks for brains-"
"Shut UP!"
"They had fun with her, took her to a ring, but you can only get so much use out of a slut-"
"SHUT UP!!" Ming had heard enough, in one sweeping move she threw Jack to the floor, and pounced on top of him and proceeded to beat the living hell outta him with her fists. "Fucking little prick!" each word was punctuated with a blow to his face.
An officer grabbed Ming's shoulders trying to pull her off Jack.
"Ma'am back off!" he grabbed Ming's arm, but she yanked it out of his grip.
"You think this is a game-" Ming growled low and ferocious "You little shit bastard! You hurt my baby, you used her like she was trash, that means you hurt me, and on top of that you lied right to my face you fuckin' asshole! I swear to you what I find out what you did to her I will cause you the most unimaginable pain" she banged his head down on the concrete floor "But if you don't tell me where she is I'll just kill you!"
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
"Logan?" Max spoke the words as she opened the door to his apartment and stepped inside
"In here" his voice called out to her
She followed it and found him, not in his computer room, but sitting on one of his two overstuffed couches
"Hey" She offered him a smile "Takin' a break?"
"Not really" Logan set her straight
"Oh" She came over to a chair and sat in it. "Is that-" she turned to face the stereo system, listening to the music coming out of it.
"That what?" Logan asked her, wanting her to elaborate.
"It's Mozart's Requiem" Max finished, listening to the haunting mass choir melody.
Logan sensed something "Does it bother you?"
Max shook her head "Manticore just played it one time too many"
"I'll change it-" Logan mentally kicked himself for making this music choice. He switched the CD changer to another CD he had in the player.
"Better?" he turned to her
Max could pick up the faint beginning string plucks of Sibelius' masterpiece "Valse Triste"
"S'good" she told him.
Logan reclaimed his seat "So, about last night-"
Max looked at him "Though we got this cleared"
"We did" Logan reassured her "I-" paused "I just don't want you to think I slept with you just because of the moment. You mean more then that to me"
"What are you tryin' to say?"
"Max I-"
The phone rang at his office
"Get it" Max told him
Frustrated, Logan got up and went to answer the call.
"Yeah? Oh hey, yeah, hang on a sec. Max" he waved her over "For you its Cree"
Max walked over and took the phone from him.
"Cree?"
"Max"
"What's up?"
"Nothing really, my car just blew a tire out here, and since I stole it there's no spare. Anyway not to sound girly, but its dark, and my head lights are about to give-"
"I'll come pick you up"
"I don't want to ruin your night Max" Cree told her
"Forget my night, it's bad outside at night and you know it, so just tell me where you are-"
"Ty's working tonight I was just driving out to see-"
"Bitch, you better drop it-" someone else's voice came over the line
"Cree-" Max heard it too.
There was a sound of something metal hitting something and then static.
"Cree!" Max shouted into the phone. She kept calling her name, but go no answer
"What happened?" Logan asked her after she slammed the phone down.
"I don't know. She said she was on her to ladder 12" Max started walking out of his office "I have to go"
"Go where?" Logan followed her out "Can you give me some specifics?"
"She's in trouble" Max whirled on him "Just trust me" she headed out to the front door and started to open it, but Logan closed it shut again with his hand.
"You know just because we hit it doesn't give you the right to act this way-" she was cut off when he leaned over and kissed her hard. He let go of the door and framed her face with his hands.
*They say this love wasn't meant to be
Two people from two different worlds we wasn't meant to be
It musta been fate you were sent to me
We'll make it through these hard times eventually*
He broke apart and looked at her "I love you Max, that's what gives me the right to act this way"
Max was speechless at his proclamation. "I have to do this Logan. She's my friend"
"I know," he told her "But you need to be careful, super soldier genes don't prevent you from getting hurt."
"Some things are worth gettin' your ass knocked around for"
*Stand and fight
Walk by faith and not by sight
We're all the same color when we turn out the lights
I'll take the sunshine with the pain
We all breathe the same air so we all the same*
"Max-"
This time it was she who cut him off by returning his earlier kiss with one of her own. "I love you too" She echoed his words, finally saying them out loud. "But I have to-"
"Just go" he finished for her.
They kissed one more time, quickly, before she was out the door, and this time he didn't stop her.
*To get my kids out of the hood that's my hope and dream
To raise my son to be a solider by any means*
I see your true colors shining though, (straight up)
I see your true colors and that's why I love you baby
*****
Max slowed her cycle when she came up Cree's car abandoned on the shoulder of the road. She dismounted her bike and walked over to the vehicle. She felt the hood with her gloved hand, it was still warm, an indication that Cree hadn't been here that long before she made the call.
Max looked around for tire tracks. She found one set in the soft dirt, but none that weren't a match to the pattern made by Cree's tires, and none led out from the car's current location. She caught the sight of the something metal lying in the dirt.
On closer inspection she found it to be Cree's small cell phone. The dirt revealed signs of a struggle along with a few drops of human blood. Judging by one way one of the indents in the mud was deeper then the others Max concluded that Cree was most likely knocked to the ground. She presumed unconscious because there was only one set of footprints in the dirt leading away from the area, and they left a deeper impression in the mud then normal, suggesting that who ever had been here had carried something or someone relatively heavy, causing their combined weight to sink the carrier's shoes into the mud.
The drops of blood left a small trail, but stopped after about a foot. Max looked around the area where the blood stopped, scanning the night sky with her cat's eyes. The footprints continued, but became mingled with two other sets leading in different directions. One set led to the water of a retention pond, another to the lighted parking lot of a bar. The set Max had been following led straight to a warehouse. Observing it for a minute, she realized that it was the same place she had been shot at two days ago.
With quiet agility she crept up to the warehouse, peeking into the small window in the door. From her angle she could see a tall sandy haired colored man staring at someone tied to a chair, someone with long black hair. She was faced away from Max, but she could make out the black silhouette of a dragon tattoo in the half-light.
*****
Cree felt the blood trickle down her nose. Her head didn't feel like it was going to explode anymore, but there was a throbbing headache right behind her eyes. Above her the sandy haired man, she had yet to learn his name, was standing above her, slapping a blackjack into his palm.
"What the hell do you thing you're doing?" he paced in front of her, staring her down, like she was under police interrogation. "Did you think for one second that no one noticed what you did?"
"I didn't exactly have the best view" she finally had gotten the chance to tell of at least one off the men who had befouled her.
The sandy haired man got pissed off and he slapped her across the face. "You are not in the position to have a smart mouth slut"
Cree sucked up the blood from the split lip she received from the slap and spit it in her captives face.
"You bitch!" he raised the black jack to slam it on her face, but at the last second she head butted him and sent him reeling to the floor.
Behind the chair Cree's hands were a fury of activity trying to loosen the ropes the bound her wrists. She worked feverishly, despite the rope burn her movements were producing.
She felt two hands, not her own, grab her rope and work the knots.
"Max" Cree could smell the cherry scent her friend always used. "Ever worked with knots before?"
"You kidding?" Max returned, "I was a girl scout" she broke the rope with one tug, very unlike the Girl Scout status she claimed to have. Cree helped her unloop the remains from her wrist.
The man had since recovered from the blow and launched himself at Max, knocking her to the ground. "You're asking for it now girly girl!" he raised the blackjack in the air.
Max flipped over in one powerful move and landed the man on his back three feet away. He recovered and picked up the fallen blackjack.
She caught it this time when he swung it at her, and kicked him square in the face. "You never learn do you?" she slammed the blackjack into his balls, sliding him to the floor.
Suddenly a large, ominous creaking was heard as one of the old dome shaped aluminum lighting fixtures broke off from its rotted wiring and fell to the floor, along with part of the roof that supported it, blocking the only exit. The popping of the light bulb in the fixture sparked, catching onto loose rotting boards and sparking them on fire. The flames quickly spread around one side of the warehouse, where the bottom of the wooden stairs became perfect fodder for it. The flames rose four feet high, engulfing the door in a wall of fire.
*****
LADDER 12
FIREMAN'S LIVING QUARTERS
"Ty" Logan called out to the man he met last height
Ty turned "Logan, something wrong?"
"Is Cree here?" Logan asked him, coming over to the couch where Ty was sitting.
Ty shook his head "I haven't seen her since last night" he looked pack over to the Steelers game playing out on the 20 inch RCA. "Man turn it up"
"Max said she was on her way to see you"
"I haven't heard anything bout it" Ty told him, not taking his eyes off the game
"Something happened tonight" Logan went straight for the kill "She called me at my house-"
"Isn't it allowed for your girlfriend to call you at home?"
"No-" Logan cut in "Not Max, she was with me. I'm talking about Cree. She had a flat and Max offered to pick her up, but the line went dead. Max went to get her, and I haven't heard from either of them since."
"Max is a big girl Logan" Ty reassured him "She can find her way home at night"
"You're not listening!" Logan got upset "Max and Cree were cut off in their conversation, there was nothing wrong with the line. I think something happened to Cree-"
"Fire in progress at 34 Fletcher Ave-" a dispatcher's voice came over the intercom sitting on the countertop in the fireman's kitchen.
"Move it guys lets go!" There was a hustle as the fireman cut off the TV and went to answer the call.
"Fletcher?" Logan said the name of the location out loud.
"Yeah, listen Logan, I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you but I have to do my job-"
"Ty" Logan broke in again "Two nights ago-" he tried to think of a way to word this to get his point across without revealing Cree's history to him yet. "Cree has this old boyfriend whose been stalking her. Max went out for her once at this warehouse where he worked to tell him to back off and he shot her. Fletcher Ave, it's the same location. Cree is over there, I know it-" and then Logan voiced the part that meant the most to him "and so is Max"
Ty did do a step back at the thought of Cree being in danger, but he didn't break much in his stride of "fireman adrenaline" "I believe you man, but I still have to go now-"
"I'm coming with you" Logan informed
"There's not enough room in the rig for-"
"I have my car" Logan interrupted again "And I'm going"
"Fine" Ty finally agreed "But you have to keep up"
*****
Ming shoved her hands in her coat pockets, staring up at the night sky, running the conversation with Jack over in her head again. /Prick, the fucking prick/ She was so close, she knew it, and even though her gut feeling told her Cree was still alive, she was so tired, tired of missing her, longing for her, being without her. A small part of her died the night she went missing three years ago. She didn't think she could bear feeling this way forever.
*Why, why, why, why
There you are
In a darkened room
And you're all alone
Looking out the window
Your heart is cold and lost the will to love Like a broken arrow*
Frustrated, she dug out her switchblade and threw it hard against the crack in the mortar of a brick wall. The blade stuck in the crack, resonating a slight sound from the force of the throw.
Angrily, she pulled the blade out and threw it again, hitting the same mark. This time when she went to pull it out, she caught the smell of smoke in the air. She backed away from the brick wall of the building she was at and moved to the end of the sidewalk.
She could see a blanket of smoke covering the stars in the night sky, and the glow of bright orange flames. Forever a cop, Ming pulled out her Motorola and dialed the fire department.
"Yeah, I'm at the corner of-" she looked above her head to the street sign "the corner of Fletcher and 32nd street, and I see a blaze about thirty yards in-"
"Yes ma'am" the dispatcher cut in "we know about that. We have a unit out to the scene already"
Ming simply hung up after that, looking once again at the fire raging. She felt useless just standing on the sidewalk. She was never a bystander, so after putting away her phone she took off in a sprint towards the flames to see if there was any way she could help
*Here I stand in the shadows
(In the shadows) Come to me, come to me Can't you see that
Nobody wants to be lonely
Nobody wants to cry
My body's longing to hold you
So bad it hurts inside
Time is precious and it's slipping away
And I've been waiting for you all of my life
Nobody wants to be lonely so why
Why don't you let me love you*
****
"We gotta go!" Max shouted to Cree above the roar of the flames
"I know!" Cree responded "But how?" smoke was filling her eyes, and she wiped them furiously with her jacket to keep the falling soot out of them. "The exit's blocked!"
"Back off from the flames!" Max called out to her "I have an idea!" she ran to one of the walls of the building.
The guy Max had beaten up now stood up and saw what they were doing "Hey!" he picked up the fallen light with the intent to throw it at them. "Ahh!" the fixture extremely hot from the heat of the flames scorched and blistered his hands
"Get down!" Max shouted to Cree, who ducked with her seconds before the fixture smashed above their heads, showering them with broken pieces. "We gotta move fast before he tries that again!" Max was now talking like the soldier she was bred to be. "This wood is old and the fire weakened it more. Too much weight against it and the whole damn thing's gonna fall on us"
"Just tell me what you want to do!" Cree told her "I'm open to anything"
"Knock out two bottom boards" Max started giving out orders "Make a big enough hole for a person to slide through. The woods rotting it should come right out. Don't do it near of the long beams, their load barring"
Cree nodded. "Let's go then"
"On three" Max told her, readying her hands for the impact "One two three-" her and Cree punched through the wood, but Max's hand hit something solid.
"Shit" she cursed at the pain, but more at realizing what it was. "We have to try somewhere else, there's a propane tank here. It's gonna blow before we can get out." She started looking around, trying to find a way out. Her eyes caught sight of the old staircase, have enveloped in flames.
"C'mon, take the stairs"
Cree was hesitant, but Max yanked her by her hand "Now, before it collapses!"
Cree got over her fear in a hurry and followed Max hap hazardly up the crumbling stairs. The top three stairs were gone so they both had to jump over the flaming gap, easy for Max, but not for Cree, who Max had to whip around and catch with one hand before she plummeted below.
The reached the small landing at the top of the stairs and Max elbowed out a window. Next to the sill was an electric wire that ran along side the building, and that, at its lowest point was ten feet from the ground
This is the only way out" Max informed "I'm guessin' we got about two minutes before that propane blows this place ski high. So whatever fears you have about sliding down a cable forty feet above the ground you better get over now"
Let's just do it before I do something stupid" Cree told her.
Take off your belt and your sweater" Max told her, watching as Cree stripped down to her tight blue v-neck thin tank top. "Wrap the sweater around the belt for an insulator, we might spark the wire. Now hand it to me" she took the belt from Cree. "Hopefully this will hold us up" Max longed for her cross bow, but she had to make due with this if she didn't want to blow with the building. She looped the belt over the wire and secured it on the third to the last hole. She gave Cree one last look "You're gonna have to dangle by my hand, the force of your weight should give us a faster downward pull. Keep your other arm at your side and your legs together!" Max grabbed onto the loop with one hand, and held the other out to Cree. "Go!" she could hear the creaking and breaking of the boards she was standing on.
Cree grabbed her hand, and felt herself falling.
*****
Ming got to the scene of the fire at the same time a fire engine pulled up. She headed towards the building just as one of the firemen was climbing out of the truck. She went around the back before any of them could see her and tell her to stop.
"Move move!" Ty shouted to the rest of his team. Him and three others got their hoses positioned and started spraying the building down while two other firemen, gas masked up to go inside the blaze.
"Ryan, is there anyone inside?" Ty called into his radio.
"Can't tell yet, there's too much smoke. Holy shit, there's a propane tank here man!"
"How close?" Ty called back
"Flames all around the edge!"
"Do you see two women in-" Ty didn't get the last words out before an earth rocking explosion knocked Ty and the crew outside to the ground.
"Max!" Logan came jogging up to the blast site. He had seen her motorcycle parked back down the road. To everyone's horror the building collapsed under itself in a fiery inferno.
"Ryan come back!" Ty was shouting in his radio "You there?" his voice was frantic.
A few minutes of static, then "We got out man, I saw someone before it blew, but I couldn't get to them in time"
Ty received the grim news, seeing Logan approach him he responded back "Was it a woman?"
"I couldn't tell man, smoke was too thick."
The news was very unsettling to Logan, and to Ty as well judging by the look in his eyes. "We don't know it was either of them Logan" Ty tried to sound professional.
From the edge of the building there was movement. "Well I'll be dammed" Jerry, the fireman beside Ty called out "Ty check it out"
Ty looked. Logan looked. Two figures emerged from the smoke, covered in soot, and smelling of smoke.
Logan's heart started beating again when he saw who it was.
"Told you I'd be careful" Max stepped over to Logan and found herself swept up in a hug.
"No offense Max, but you kind of stink" Logan was trying to be light, now that it was all over.
Before she could talk smack to him he kissed her, long and passionate, making the fireman hoot at them.
Cree approached Ty "Guess I set the world on fire"
Ty, being a civil servant and a gentleman, took off his fireman's jacket and put over her form, because it had started to lightly rain, which would be good to put out the flames.
"Are you okay?" he asked her
"Not really" she wasn't like Max
He touched her head "You're bleeding"
She responded by wiping some blood off with her hand. "Forgot about that"
"Here" he pushed a gloved hand to her forehead, making her flinch
"Oww"
"Don't be such a baby Cree"
*****
Ming couldn't get to the building in time before it fell. She headed back out to the front. She saw "civilians" outside with the fireman, and she was glad that some of them made it out.
She turned to leave, but then stopped, hearing something familiar.
"Don't be such a baby Cree"
"Watch that"
That voice, Ming pushed her way through the crowd, looking.
*****
Cree looked up, catching a flash of a vision /Damn I'm seeing things again/ She saw a woman, black hair, she looked so much like her. She had seen too many of these visions in her life. This one was so real, almost exactly like her-
*****
Ming stopped dead in her tracks, words disappeared from her mouth, she tried again.
"Cree-" her voice was hesitant, but she tried again
"Cree"
* Can you hear my voice
Do you hear my song
It's a serenade
So your heart can find me And suddenly you're flying down the stairs
Into my arms, baby*
Her vision talked, then it hit her like a ton of brick, it wasn't a dream. The woman was pushing her way through the fireman.
"Cree wait!" Ty called after her when she suddenly started to move away from him.
Cree was walking, and then she was running. Time seemed to take forever.
She couldn't talk she just ran
*Before I start going crazy
Run to me, run to me
'Cause I'm dying*
****
Both met in the center in a death lock, choking off each other's air.
"My baby" Ming's words were half there in her sobs "Oh god, my baby, you came back" she pulled apart and kissed her everywhere, taking in her face, her eyes, everything she remembered, and new things that she missed. "you came back"
"Mom, how did you find me?" Cree thought she would never get to say those words again. "Why-how?"
"I have no damn idea" Ming told her straight out
This made Cree laugh slightly, before she threw herself at her mom again "I missed you mom god- I've been so screwed-" her words drifted into sobs
"I know" Ming told her, hugging her like she would never let her go "It's okay baby, my sweet baby I love you so much"
*Nobody wants to be lonely
Nobody wants to cry
My body's longing to hold you
So bad it hurts inside
Time is precious and it's slipping away
And I've been waiting for you all of my life
Nobody wants to be lonely so why don't you let me love you*
"Mom why us? Why me?" Cree looked up at her mother, eyes so much like hers, wet with tears.
"I don't know-" Ming could only give her an honest answer, hugging her closer.
*...And I feel so light
This is all I want to feel tonight
And I feel so light
Tonight and the rest of my life
Tonight and the rest of my life"
*****
I was so anxious to get to the reunion scene you have know I idea, I wanted it to come across as sweet, but not something like coming home from summer camp, I mean Ming thought she could be dead, it had to be heart wrenching.
Max and Logan said the "L" word..yay..i did it to what I think it would be like for them..with who they are it wouldn't be Champaign and roses. Logan would try that, but something would get in the way..so this was my spin
This isn't the end of the story, there's still Ty, and Cree's other family, and they have to be dealt with. I don't think I can even cover Cree's demons in this story so...yay! There will most likely be a sequel dealing with the aftermath of Cree's time in Seattle as well as Logan and Max's shack up, AND (don't you love it when there's an "and"?) Max never told Cree about Manticore, and that might be a good avenue to explore.
Hope you cried..that was the idea.
I started a trend with the last chap, so here are the songs in order again:
(Chop shop scene) "Rollin" Limp Bizkit
(Max and Logan talking in Logan's apartment) "True Colors" (Save the Last Dance Soundtrack)
(Ming alone by wall and reunion) "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" Ricky Martin and Christina Agulara
(end of story) "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" Nina Gordon (off "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "Dark Angel" soundtracks)
Like a broken arrow