Disclaimer: Repeat after me: Dark Angel is the property of James Cameron and the idiots at FOX. Very good.

Zack's Penny

By Be Boring

Chapter 13: Face-off

*~* Penny

It felt like every muscle in my body was about to explode. I had been tense ever since we had gotten away from Manticore, it seemed like the truck couldn't go fast enough. Zane's pulse had stopped over five times now, and I knew there were only so many times I'd be able to get it started again before it shut down for good. Our major problem was that it would be stupid to go to a hospital in Gillette or any town near it, but we'd have to get Zane some help soon. His pulse was weak at the moment, and his breathing was so slow that at times I wasn't sure he was breathing at all.

Krit was driving as fast as he could, but ever since the Pulse there was a lot less traffic on the interstates, leading to more arrests for people that were speeding. There was rarely a crowd you could run in anymore; if you were speeding, then you were alone. So basically, we would go as fast as we could legally until we got behind someone who was really moving, then we went full throttle.

Syl dug her fingernails into her armrest as she turned to look at Zane's pale and bruised face. "How soon can we get somewhere safe for him?"

Krit glanced at a green sign overhead. "The next exit will take us to Sheridan, so I guess we'll go there. We should be far enough away by now."

Neither one had spoken to me since we'd left, I think they were uncomfortable with the situation. They obviously knew the truth, so I doubt they were very happy with me. Especially seeing as how I had gotten myself caught by Manticore and forced them to come get me, putting them in danger for a person they were already angry with. I hated feeling so awkward around them, especially Syl. She had been like family ever since I had come to live with her, even though she didn't know at the time that I actually was family. She was someone I could turn to, and I sure as hell never took that for granted. Sure, Zack was a good guy and I loved him dearly, but there are some things you just can't tell a man.

I didn't feel even remotely relieved until Krit pulled up next to a hospital, then Syl ran in to get help while Krit and I lifted Zane out of the truck. I could tell by the looks on the faces of the nurses running towards us with a stretcher that they weren't too happy about the way we were moving him. In fact, a shrill voice nearly cut into both Krit and me.

"What in the world do you think you're doing? If this man was an inch from death, you would have killed him by now!" Krit and I could only stand there and blink in shock at the old woman who was chewing us out. I don't think she would have been speaking to us that way if she knew just what kind of people she was dealing with, but then again, she might have gone on with her lecturing anyway. The only thing Krit and I could hear as we walked up to the hospital was her voice babbling about how irresponsible kids were these days. Syl raised an eyebrow as we finally reached her, but Krit just rolled his eyes in response. I couldn't help but grin at the way they could communicate perfectly without saying a word. I hoped I could have that with someone someday.

*~* Zane

Images kept flashing through my mind; some in slow motion, some whipping by so fast that I couldn't tell what I had just seen. An image of a very angry young Max melted perfectly into an outraged older Zack, then changed smoothly once again into a laughing Syl. Lydecker became Krit, Randy became one of my dogs. It was like watching some sort of insane slideshow. I vaguely remembered opening my eyes and seeing Penny, but I couldn't seem to get her attention. She was looking forward through the windshield. I could see the back of Krit's head, and the scent of Syl's perfume was almost overwhelming. Before anyone looked at me, everything had faded to black again.

My world went back to the strange slideshow presentation. Sounds could be vaguely heard, often connected to the image I was seeing. I saw one of my old girlfriends while the song "Breathe" by Faith Hill played in my mind, but it changed almost immediately to a fourteen-year-old Jondy, head banging to "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. I heard Penny's scream as I slammed on the brakes on the day of her accident, but it turned into a very drunk young Krit doing his Whitney Houston impression. I was fairly sure he was attempting to sing "I Will Always Love You", but I might have confused that with the sound of something dying.

This has got to stop. Something in me didn't like this roller coaster ride that my mind was sending me on, but I couldn't do much about it. The more I wished for it to go away, the faster it came. Is this what they mean by your life flashing before your eyes? Jondy had always believed that particular theory, so she decided she wanted to make her last moments interesting. She liked to live her life as wildly as possible, and her only excuse was "When I die, I want the last things I see to be interesting, not make me want to die faster!"

Zack had never liked for any of us to talk about death so casually. I think it worried him to think about any of us dying. He wanted to feel as though he'd succeeded as a leader, not failed us miserably. His one minor setback was that he never expected us to do something he wouldn't normally do. Like Penny; his normal reaction would have been to get out of the country, but she had gone even closer to Manticore. That threw him for a loop because he believed we should all be like him. I respected him deeply, but I didn't ever want to become quite that boring.

"Get out! Get the fuck out of here! Leave me alone!" Now I could see Penny trying to back away from me. It was the shower from the hotel in Ludlow, and I was fighting with my body as I tried to get nearer to that enticing smell. The cold water and the pain in my nose didn't even slow me down as I reached for her. I remember feeling a rush of relief when she shoved me under the cold water and ran out of the shower stall. It was a relief not to be near her, where her scent made me unable to control myself. Why did any of it have to happen? She'll never trust me again. It doesn't matter whether or not I succeeded in getting her out of Manticore, she'll never feel right when she's near me again.

The only hope I had was that tiny moment where I had opened my eyes. I was sure that it was real, but could I trust my own crazed mind? Or was it all an illusion? Maybe we didn't make it after all, perhaps we got caught and I'm in a drug-induced coma. My only glimmer of hope was that one moment. I could only pray that it was real.

*~* Penny

They had been working on Zane for nearly two hours now. According to one of the nurses, he had a broken arm, five cracked ribs, a punctured lung, a dislocated shoulder, and a severe concussion. Why did I take so long in getting to him? I might have been able to stop him from getting hurt so badly!

Krit and Syl were sitting together a couple seats away from me, but they hadn't so much as glanced at me during all this time. I've never felt more helpless and alone. I didn't even bother to say anything to them as I stood up and walked off. I needed to take a walk and just move my body. Some food would be welcome as well, but I remembered just how horrible hospital food could be. Maybe I would pass on that for a while.

"Penny? Is that you?"

I whirled around, feeling every muscle tense up once again, this time for defense, but a moment later I relaxed.

"Tinga? Is Zack here too?"

She looked so happy to see me, it was a complete 180 from the way she had been treating me in her car. "Yeah, he'll be coming soon. You're not going to be able to stay here long, it's too easy to find you. You know that Zack has a police scanner, and we heard at least fifteen reports of a blue truck speeding on the interstate, but you weren't going quite fast enough for them to decide to come and pick you up. The reports stopped after you exited and came to Sheridan, so we started searching the town. I'm sure he'll stop in here pretty soon. Why are you here?"

"Zane fought with Brin while he was trying to get me out of Manticore. She beat him up pretty badly, he was lucky to survive."

"So Zane wasn't kidding when he said you had been captured? Zack thought he just said that to piss him off."

"He was being perfectly serious," I replied quietly. I hadn't realized how tired this entire ordeal had made me, and I simply didn't have the energy to deal with Tinga, especially if she was going to get nasty.

But for some reason, she didn't look as though she was trying to pick a fight. "Are you okay? You look exhausted."

I tried to force a smile. "It's just been a really long day."

She glanced around and pulled me to one of the waiting chairs. "C'mon, sit down. You'll probably want to be somewhat rested up when Zack shows up."

So that's what she was worried about; Zack. I could still sense the hostility she felt towards me, but she was keeping it in check because of him. With what she had done to me last time, he most likely wasn't too happy with her. No matter what her reasons were for being nice, I was grateful. I'd felt lonely for the past few hours, so it was nice to have someone to talk to.

"How does Zack feel about everything that's happened?" I asked finally.

She shrugged. "I don't have a clue. You know the way he can be, he just won't let anyone see what's going on in his head. Just as a guess though, I think he's more worried than angry. It's hard to tell though, he expresses both of those feelings in the exact same way."

"Tell me about it. I lived with him for years and I still didn't get him figured out."

For some reason, Tinga gave me a strange look. "You say all of that in the past tense. Aren't you going to go back to living with him?"

I was dumbstruck for a moment, I really had sounded as if I didn't plan on living with Zack again. Maybe I didn't want to. "I don't know. It's been a while since I lived with him, and I'm more capable of taking care of myself now."

She hesitated for a moment, then plunged into her next question. I could tell it wasn't easy for her to ask. "Are you planning to live with Zane?"

That took me completely by surprise. I hadn't even thought of it before, my initial ideas were to leave everyone behind and start fresh. "To be honest, I never considered that. I don't really know what I feel now after my heat cycle and everything that's happened, and I don't know how Zane feels about me."

"He came straight into Manticore to save you, doesn't that tell you something?"

I knew that had to be hard for her to say, she didn't like me enough to want me to be with her brother. "Yeah, I guess so. Maybe I'll talk to him after he wakes up."

"No, I don't think you will be talking to him anytime soon."

Tinga and I both turned. Zack had finally made it to the hospital, and he looked furious. "Why would you say that? What's going to stop me from talking to him?"

His blue eyes flashed while he ran his fingers back through his hair. "You're not going to be here when he wakes up. We're leaving right now."

Despite my weariness, I jumped to my feet. "What makes you think you're taking me anywhere? If I don't plan on going, then good luck getting me out of here!"

I think that hit him hard, he had expected me to fall into line like the good little soldier he wanted me to be. "What'll you do if I'm not here? How long would it be before you got captured by Manticore again? I wouldn't be around to save you."

"You weren't around to save me this time, why wouldn't I be able to get out a second time?" That obviously hurt him, but I was too deep into this to stop now. "I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I might not be living alone. Would that make you feel better?"

"It depends on who you're thinking of living with." He apparently hadn't heard what I'd said just before I mentioned wanting to talk to Zane.

"I'll let you know later. If you really want to find out, then you can stick around and wait, or you can leave and I'll call you later. Either way, I don't think I'll be living with you again." There, I had it out, everything was said. Now I hoped he could deal with it. He probably would have shot something back, but a doctor came up to me at that moment.

"There's someone who wants to see you."

*~* Zane

The first thing I saw when I woke up was a white ceiling. Manticore got to us, was the first thought that ran through my mind, but when I lifted my head I could see people running up and down the hallway. This didn't seem to be Manticore, it just looked like your everyday hospital.

"How are you feeling?" A young woman who probably hadn't been a doctor for more than a year came walking to my side. "Any pain?"

I glanced down at my body, stunned to see the casts that covered a lot of it. "No, not really, I just feel lightheaded."

"That's the aftereffects of the anesthesia we had to use. As a matter of fact, we had to use a lot of it on you to make sure you wouldn't be waking up in the middle of our work, you just didn't seem to want to stay asleep."

I was surprised they had enough anesthesia here to make an X5 sleep. "Who brought me here?"

"Two young women and a young man," she replied matter-of-factly. Thank God, the plan worked.

"Can I speak to one of the young women? She's the shorter of the two, and she has curly, light brown hair."

"Would you like me to inform the other two that you're awake?"

"Not quite yet, I want to speak to Penny first." I couldn't help but feel stupid after she left the room, I had used Penny's name. I hoped we weren't too close to Manticore, just a whisper of her name could bring them back down on top of us.

About five minutes later, I couldn't help but smile as Penny entered the room. She looked worried. "How are you? From everything the doctor told me, you have enough injuries to top a war veteran!"

I started to laugh, but my ribs immediately protested. I took as deep of a breath as I could without hurting myself, then started letting the questions flow. "Where are we? Manticore doesn't know where we are, do they? Are you okay? Where's Krit and Syl?"

She chuckled and motioned for me to stop talking. "Just one at a time! We're in Sheridan, Wyoming, I don't think Manticore knows our whereabouts, I'm just fine, and Krit and Syl are out in the waiting room hoping to see you soon. Does that help?"

"A little. Penny, how are you really? I don't mean physically."

I saw her tense up slightly. "Are you talking about..." She trailed off uncomfortably.

"Yeah, I've been worried ever since you left Ludlow. I don't want what happened to change anything between us, and I especially don't want it to make us feel uncomfortable around each other."

"I don't think that can be helped, but I want to get over it. I have other things on my mind right now."

"Like what?"

"Zack's out there right now, and he's really pissed. I told him that I didn't want to live with him anymore."

That was news to me. "Really? What are you planning to do?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'll think of somewhere to live later, right now I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

I wasn't sure if I could sense something from her body language that meant this was a hint, but I decided to take it anyway. It was probably one of the riskiest things I've ever done, and I'm saying that even after I ran into Manticore and got my ass kicked. "I think I know what the answer to this is going to be, but would you ever consider living with me? Zack wouldn't be happy, and it would probably be really uncomfortable for a little while, but would you think about it?"

The room was silent for a few minutes while she stared at the floor, obviously thinking hard. I was dreading her answer, but she surprised me. "I'll think about it."

I couldn't help it, I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. I couldn't really express how excited I was, but I never got my chance.

"There's no way in hell," a low growl came from behind Penny. We both stared at the door, and the man filling it up. I should have guessed Zack wouldn't be happy about this.

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Author's Note: I'm so sorry this took so long! I had a horrible case of writer's block, and I wanted to make this chapter as good as possible for everyone. Just to let everyone know, I'll be wrapping this story up in one or two more chapters. This is one I'll really miss writing, especially seeing as how I've never gotten so much positive feedback on a story before. I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart, it really cheers me up to read your reviews. So please press the little button and leave me a tidbit!