TITLE: Genetically Empowered (My Finale & Season 3)
EPISODE: 16 "LITTLE PROBLEMS" 1/06/03
WRITTEN BY: Heather Ferguson (fergus80)
EMAIL: hferguso@niu.edu
WEBSITE: http://eric_greta.tripod.com (Jensen)
RATING: PG-13 (For now, will post alternate chapters if ratings change)
SUMMARY: How 'Freak Nation' and S3 should have been. M/A
SPOILERS: Everything!
DISCLAIMER: All Dark Angel characters belong to James Cameron, FOX, etc. etc. etc.
FEEDBACK: PLEASE!!! I CRAVE IT!!! It makes me want to write more.
DEDICATION: To all the Nuns at the Church of Alec, and the Blue Lady! And a special thank you to those who read, and corrected my spelling, grammar, tenses, etc. You know who you are, you wonderful nuns you. ;)
GO TO: NWP: http://nunswithpens.hyperboards.com/
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It was ten minutes to the morning meeting and he still wasn't there yet. Which was strange, very strange. Heck he was usually there hours ahead of time. Max quickly stood and made her way down the stairs and out the door. Only a quick word to Dix over her shoulder, "I'll be back."
He gave a look to Luke and then Mole who started towards the stairs. Mole just shook his head, "That girl has to calm down. Anytime anyone does anything not 'normal' she freaks out." He leaned against the railing of the stairs, chomping on his cigar in thought, and then took it out with a puff a smoke. "Then again, she was always like that."
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BANG! She hit the door in front of her. BANG. "Joshua! Are you in there?" She yelled, a small amount of fear going through her. It's not like he hadn't tried to leave before. He had left Father's house and moved to Terminal City on his own. Who's to say he didn't leave now. Leave like… her thoughts were interrupted by the door whiling open, and Max's eyes widening at the white hair in front of her.
"God Max! Morning to you too."
"Sonya," Max said looking at her in shock.
The woman nodded and stepped back from the doorway to let the brunette inside, then shut the door behind her.
"Hey Little Fella."
Max turned to find Joshua sitting at the table, a fork full of pancakes moving into his mouth. Her body instantly relaxed at the happy smile on his face, "Hey."
"Do you want any pancakes Max?" Sonya asked as she moved over to what looked like a hot plate and small frying pan.
Max waved at her, and shook her head, "No. I'm good, but thanks."
"What's wrong?" Joshua asked her with concerned eyes.
She sighed and sat down, her hand moving over her forehead. "You weren't in headquarters…"
He looked at the clock, "Joshua not late for meeting…"
She smiled, "No, no you aren't. I just… I got worried when you weren't there." She looked up into his big puppy dog eyes, and he placed his big hand over hers.
"Joshua here. Not going anywhere." She smiled, and he continued. "And Alec will come back."
She closed her eyes and pulled her hand away standing up, shaking her head. "Joshua, don't." She didn't want to hear it again. He had such high hopes that Alec would return, but she knew better.
"Alec had a good reason. When that reason is done, he will be back."
She could feel the anger starting to bubble over, and she didn't want it to. She didn't want to get angry. Max looked to Sonya for help, and she just put her hands up, and backed away. The other woman obviously did not want to get into this debate.
Max sighed, "Look… Joshua… no matter what you thought about Alec…"
He stood up shaking his head, "No Max. Don't talk bad about him. You don't know. You don't know why he left."
"And neither do you. No one does."
"Good reason. He had too."
She couldn't take it anymore, and grabbed him by his shoulders, making him look down at her. "Joshua! Alec left. He left ALL of us. It's been over a month. He's NOT coming back," Max yelled. She saw the hurt look go through his eyes, and her voice softened, "He's never coming back."
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Mel sighed as she put in the last amount of the report into the computer from the results in front of her. *God Mole was such a pain in the ass to get in here for these.* She thought as she turned over the last page and picked up the next report. A small smile came to her face as she read the next name. *But not as much of a pain as other people.*
Her fingers started to type the information of the report into the computer, and then her hands stopped. Her eyes stared at the computer readout in front of her. "Oh. My. God."
Mel's hands quickly picked up the paper, and scanned the rest of the results. Making sure to confirm that her eyes were not deceiving her. She swallowed hard, "This is not good… this is soooo not good." She said, standing quickly and racing out of the door towards headquarters.
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They designed her to be the perfect soldier--a human weapon. Then she escaped. In a future not far from now, in a broken world, she is haunted by her past. She cannot run; she must fight to discover her destiny. --- DARK ANGEL
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Vin leaned against the railing with Luke as they watched the television. The crowd on the screen was getting bigger and bigger as more and more buses were pulling up to the location. They both turned to the sound of the door bursting opening, and a blonde streak moving up the stairs.
His arms came out quickly, his hands gripping her shoulders to slow her down, "Whoah, slow down there, before you go through a wall."
Mel stopped in his grasp and looked around the area quickly, her eyes searching.
"Calm down, you still have a few minutes before the 7am meeting."
She shook her head, "Where's Max?"
He gave her a strange look, "Ummm not sure. But I'm sure she'll be here in a second or…"
Mel cut him off, breaking away. "I need to talk to her."
"Okay, why?" His dark eyes searched hers. She was starting to worry him. "What's wrong?"
She stopped, bit her lip, and then quickly folded the paper in her hand. "Uhhh…"
He looked down at the piece of paper, and Luke moved over towards them too, trying to figure out what was going on. "Mel…" Vin started, "What's wrong?"
She tried to figure out what to tell him, but then she heard the door open. Joshua walked in, followed by the person in question. Mel quickly moved down the stairs, her hand reached for Max and pulled her towards her office. "Mel…" Max yelled as the blond dragged her to the door. She looked up to Vin for an answer, and he only shrugged his shoulders in response. Her office door was quickly shut behind her, and Max whirled around to the blond. "Okay, now what the hell was so important that you had too…"
Mel shoved the paper into Max's face, and brown eyes scanned it quickly. A small gasp formed as wide eyes read the printout. "Oh, God," was the only thing she could manage to say.
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He was nervous. Extremely nervous. Was he just supposed to go out there and talk? Would they listen? Would they care? He could hear everyone, and he knew he had to do it. He had come this far, he couldn't back out now. He walked up the steps, the sun immediately blinding him slightly.
He shielded his eyes from it, letting his eyes adjust. Then he saw where he was headed for, and made his way too it. Normal walked up onto the platform, his hands waving to the huge crowd formed in front of the steps of Congress.
He took a deep breath, and lightly taped the microphone. The small tap could be heard throughout the large crowd, and they quieted down slightly. Normal swallowed the lump in his throat, and started to speak. "Hello. And Welcome to what will start as a new day… A new day of peace for humans and transgenics…" The crowd started to cheer, and he smiled taking out his speech on his three by five note cards.
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Vin smiled, "Ya gotta love the guy for trying so hard."
Joshua nodded from the couch, but both turned quickly as the office door burst open. A hotheaded brunette shouting as hinges seemed to wobble on the frame. "This is NOT happening."
The guys looked at each other quickly, and then slowly made their way down the stairs in apprehension.
"Max… I know it's not exactly the best news right now…" Mel started, trying to calm her down.
"Not the BEST NEWS? Could it be any worse?" She threw her hands up in the air. "Oh course. Just another way for HIM to SCREW up my life!"
Mel bit her lip hard on that one, last thing she wanted to do was laugh. And the evil glare she got from the other woman, told her that the irony of her own statement was not lost on her.
"What's wrong?" Vin asked. But he really didn't want too. From the anger in Max's voice, and the 'him' she had spoken of, he already knew the topic of conversation. And that topic had never gone well with the other woman in the last month or so.
Max's dark eyes turned on him, and he swallowed hard. "What's wrong? What's wrong?" she yelled. She held up the paper, "Your little girlfriend had to show me this!" She threw it at him, and his eyes started to read down the paper, his eyes widening. "That's right! Yep! Your great CO not only left us all. He left a little present in his wake."
Vin swallowed hard again, his eyes closing. *Oh, God Alec. Where the hell did you go?* He barely had time to open his eyes as he watched her storm out of the room. He started to walk after her, but a hand grabbed his arm.
Mel shook her head at him, "Let her go. She needs to calm down, and think." He nodded, and ran his hand through his hair.
Joshua looked back and forth between them, "What present did Alec leave Max?"
Mel sighed at his innocent face and just shook her head, *Oh, boy.*
Vin placed a hand on Joshua's shoulder and tried to state the answer as simply as he could, "Max is pregnant."
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"So everything is done?" He grinned into the phone at the answer. The voice continued to speak and asked him a question. "Yes, I'm watching the fool on the television right now."
He picked up the remote and turned the volume down. He couldn't stand listening to the peaceful and happy words from the man on the stage. White laughed as the man sneezed onto his three by five cards and looked lost for a second in his speech. *Ordinaries,* he sighed.
He nodded his head into the receiver, "Good. Keep me posted." He hung up the phone and laughed again at the nervous human on the screen. While the crowd gathered at the steps was not a good thing, and neither was the idea that humans were becoming sympathetic to the transgenic cause. It really didn't matter anymore.
White watched the rest of the speech, and saw the man leave the stage rubbing his throat. The reporters came on, talking about the speech, and how the tides where turning towards peace. White smiled at the television, as he listened to the news reports. "Now things will get interesting."
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"Oh thank God!" The voice screamed out as the person rushed towards her, enfolding her in a hug. "Boo… don't scare us like that!"
Max looked up at Original Cindy in a slight daze. She had spent the last few hours racing around Seattle on her 'baby' trying to clear her mind. Trying to come to a decision. Trying to get the tears to dry on her face. "Cindy… what are you doing here?"
Cindy hugged her again, and then pointed over her shoulder at the two X5's. "They called me about two hours ago, wondering if you were with me. And when ya weren't, I pried." She pointed between the two of them, "Now they are good soldiers, but they still couldn't keep the truth away from Original Cindy."
Max nodded, so she knew. She looked around headquarters, and realized that everyone knew. Well after her angry outburst before, what else was she to expect.
OC turned back to her, "How's my Boo doing?"
Max stood up straight, "I'm fine. I will be fine."
Vin and Mel looked at each other, and they moved over to the two women, Joshua following, his arms wrapping around Max in a big hug. "Little Fella is going to have her own little one."
Max stilled in his grasp and pulled away, shaking her head. "No. No I'm not." She started to walk away from them and to her office. "I'm NOT having this…" she refused to say the word. She refused to even think of it that way. It was just a problem. A thing to be taken care of. It wasn't anything else, but a pain in her side that needed to be removed. Much like the person that had put it there. She walked inside her office once again slamming the door behind her.
Mole shook his head from the side of the room. "We are going to have to replace that door soon. It can't take much more abuse."
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"So it went well?"
The woman smiled back at him as she clasped her seatbelt together. "It went better than well Mr. Ronald." He smiled, as he rubbed his throat and coughed slightly. "Want me to get you some water? Your throat has to be sore after that long speech."
He shook his head, "No, no. I'm okay. I just hope the march and the speech will have a good effect."
The woman grinned, "I don't see how anything but good could come from that speech." Normal smiled, and took a deep breath as he felt the wheels liftoff from the runway. He hoped she was right.
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"Not having this?" Joshua asked, slightly confused.
Vin sat down heavily on a chair, rubbing his temples. Alec had asked him to look out for her, and right now all he wanted to do was kill her, and find him and do the same thing. *Well… not literally.* His hands clenched in frustration, and he almost jumped at feeling of hands starting to massage the muscles in his neck.
Mel smiled down at him, well… tired to smile. She was basically having the same thoughts. She looked back up at Joshua. "She's having a hard time dealing with this Josh. And right now… at least I'm hoping that it's just right now. She is thinking that…"
OC shook her head, "That she doesn't want the baby."
Josh's eyes got bigger. "No. No. Max can't get rid of the baby."
Cindy sighed, "It is her choice. Doesn't matter really if we like it or not." OC looked over at the two X5's. Vin looked defeated, and Mel was just about there. She knew how loyal they were to Alec, and that the thought of what Max might do was killing them. She also knew how much that thought would kill Alec. Destroy him. *Boo… you had better have a good reason for running out on my girl.* She sighed and grabbed Joshua's arm, pulling him towards the lion's den.
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How could this be happening? She didn't have time to deal with this. She had a city to run, a war to manage. She had hundreds counting on her to get things done. She didn't need one more. Especially… *No!* She yelled at herself again. *Don't even think of it like that.*
"It's just another problem to deal with. Just like any other. And just like any other problem in TC, this will get taken care of efficiently and effectively." She didn't even want her brain to go into why TC had worked so well and efficiently. Because that thought, or more accurately that person would just bring back another array of emotions she wasn't ready to deal with.
She heard the knock at the door and tried to ignore it. But the knocker would not be ignored, "Damn it girl. Open up this door. You know I'll just knock all damn night."
Max sighed, stood, and made her way over to the door opening it. "What?"
OC dragged Joshua in behind her and Max shut the door behind them. The big guy moved over to the couch, and Max could tell from the look on his face that he was depressed. She sighed, as she eyed her other friend and raised her hand. "Don't start Cindy. I can't believe you… YOU of all people, are going to try and talk me out of it."
"Hey. If in the end that is what you decide. You know OC will stand behind you. I've got ya back no matter what you decide."
Max nodded and moved over and sat on the edge of her desk. Cindy came up and grabbed her hand, making her look at her. "But I don't want you going off in a huff without thinking this Bitch through and regretting it later, like you usually do." She saw Max about ready to object, and she continued, "And you KNOW I'm right."
Max huffed and glared at OC. "Cindy. I don't have time for this. The timing couldn't be worse. I didn't ask for it. I didn't plan it. And…"
Cindy nodded, "And Alec is gone. Yeah. We know. But what if he does come back?"
Max stood quickly, moving away from her friend, "When is it going to get into everyone's head that he's not? Huh?"
Cindy moved her hands, trying to calm her down, "Okay… Okay. But… what if? If he walked back into this room now… what would you do?"
"Kill him!"
OC smiled slightly at Josh's mortified look, but also the anger in Max's voice. The anger was good. Because it was just that… anger… not hate. "And what if he had a really good reason?"
Max's jaw tightened, "Kick his ass. Then kill him for not telling me."
Cindy nodded. "Would you go through with it?" She saw the look in her friend's eyes. Saw the slight hesitation. Then watched the brunette straighten her shoulders, and OC sighed.
"Yes."
"But why?"
Max quickly looked to Joshua and his soft question. *Because he wouldn't want this. Just like he didn't want me.* But instead she answered, "Because it is still a very big problem, and I can't deal with it and everything else right now."
Cindy had enough, and grabbed her by her shoulders, "It? Damn it Max. You keep saying it! It's a baby Max. A BABY! Yours and Alec's." She watched her friends eyes widen at her words. "Are you prepared to kill his and your baby Max? Are you? And are you going to be able to live with yourself if you do? Because 'that' girl is the question you need to ask yourself."
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Vin tried to concentrate on the papers in front of him, but it was no use. He looked over his shoulder down at the door, and then turned back to look in equally concerned blue eyes. "If I see him, I'm going to kill him myself."
Mel sighed, and leaned against the table. "You know, he had no clue about the baby. He couldn't have. She's barely a month along."
He nodded, "I know." He sighed again, putting down the papers. "I only wonder if he would have stayed even if he had known."
She looked at him shocked, "Oh no. There is no way in hell Alec would have left if he knew Max was pregnant. Don't tell me you actually believe that."
He shook his head, "Mel… Alec wouldn't have left Max unless he HAD too. You know what lengths he will go through to keep just his friends safe."
She nodded, she did know. Memories washed through her at how many times she had actually been on the receiving end of some of those lengths, and how much he had endured. She didn't even want to think what he would do for someone he truly loved. And she knew how much he loved Max. She reached out for Vin's hand, "Just tell me you won't be so self-sacrificing."
He smiled, and gripped her fingers tighter, "I can't promise anything." He was ready for the smack even before she tried to hit him, and instead grabbed her wrist, and pulled her in for a quick kiss.
They broke apart as a voice yelled from below, "Mel!" The two X's quickly walked to the ledge, and found Cindy and Joshua being pushed out of Max's office. "Mel… In here now!"
The blond swallowed and made her way down the stairs. Looking back and forth at the two unwelcome guests from the office. Cindy just shook her head. The blond could swear she almost saw tears in her eyes along with Joshua's. *This is not good,* she thought as she walked into the room. "Shut the door," came the voice from the desk, and Mel shut it behind her and walked over.
"Yes?" Max looked up at her with cold eyes, and Mel almost took a step back. The blank, emotionless expression startling her to no end.
"I need you to get the medical center ready. I want this out of me, and done with as soon as possible."
Mel look at her like she was nuts, "Excuse me?"
"I need you to perform the operation," Max said a little slower for the other woman. "As soon as possible. Tonight would be good."
The blond shook her head, "You have to be kidding me." Max didn't answer. "No."
"What?" Max asked standing up quickly "What do you mean no?"
"I won't do it. Max… there is NO way I will do that operation."
"I'm ordering you to do it!" Max yelled.
Mel shook her head, "You might be the leader of TC Max. But I don't take orders from you. I take them from my CO. And he happens to be the father of the baby you are ordering me to abort! There isn't a chance in HELL that I'm going to do that!"
Max clenched her fists together in rage. She wasn't going to let him screw up her life anymore. She wasn't going to let his friends help him screw it up either. "I am NOT having this!"
"BABY!" Mel yelled. "Fine! You aren't going to have the baby!" She shook her head, and started for the door, and opened it so everyone could hear. "Max you can do whatever the hell you want to. But I'm not going to help you. And I'm sure as hell no one else in Terminal City is going to help you abort Alec's baby either!" And with that she walked out the door slamming it shut behind her.
Everyone's eyes were wide in headquarters as Vin rushed over to Mel as she was about ready to walk out the door. His arm spun her around, and his fingers instantly were wiping the tears away. She pulled away shaking her head. "I don't think anyone can get through to her, exactly what she is doing." With that she waved him away, telling him she needed to be alone as she walked out the door.
Vin looked back at the office door with a sigh. *No, there is one person. But they have no idea.*
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Max watched the door slam shut. Her hand quickly pushing the single tear from her cheek. Her other hand took out her cell phone, dialing the number.
{{Hello?}}
She felt the lump in her throat, and swallowed to clear it. "It's Max."
There was a pause on the other end, {{Long time. I heard about Log…}}
"Sam…" She cut him off. That was another place she didn't want to go into. Max cleared her throat, "Dr. Carr… I need your help."
{{Anything Max. What can I do?}}
"I need to schedule a… procedure."
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Scenes from an All New DA on 1/13/02:
*NEXT ON AN ALL NEW DARK ANGEL*
CAN ANYONE
Dix's smile faded from his face. "No. We haven't heard anything from him yet."
STOP IT
"Two new reports in three hours. I'm telling you, I hope you have your flu shot up to date," the guy said.
FROM HAPPENING?
Joshua stood up and moved in front of her. "Little Fella… please. Rethink this."