In the Shadows

by Gem4

Someone from Alec's past resurfaces unexpectedly, leaving Max hurt by his lies of omission, and setting White on the prowl.

2. Chapter 2

In the Shadows

Part 2

By Gem

From the dark look on Max's face when she walked into Joshua's house, Logan knew they were all in for a rough time.  She had been hurt by the idea of Alec keeping the secret of a child from her, but to be confronted with the reality of it, especially on what she once considered her turf, had to be that much more painful.  The closest thing to a positive mood indicator Logan could find was that she refrained from slamming the door, and while it was probably only in deference to the new arrival in the family, he was desperate enough to take it as a good sign.

"You made good time."  He rose from his computer desk and crossed the room to greet her, pretending a heartiness that felt as foreign as it looked.  How did he end up running interference for Alec, of all people?  "I'm guessing the reporters didn't give you any trouble?"

She dismissed the paparazzi with a snort as she stalked past him into the living room.  "They were easy enough to ditch at the gates."

"Fine."  He beamed, and tried to look like he meant it.  "That's very..."

"You can't protect him forever, Logan," she interrupted him.  "I'm not real clear on why you'd want to."  She switched her accusatory gaze to her wayward fellow transgenic.  "Okay, Alec, this had better be good."

Alec looked up from the floor where he was sitting next to his daughter, watching her draw on Logan's white board.  The board had been laid on the floor, and she had been carefully placed in the middle of it, after her attempts to color the floor with Logan's markers proved detrimental to the markers.  Fortunately the floor's condition was a moot point after all these years of neglect.

"Max, what about this situation is not good?"  A quick frown chased across the X5's normally cheerful face.  "Did something happen to my bike?"

She raised her eyebrows and began tapping her foot impatiently against the wood floor, but she still kept her voice low to avoid scaring 49614.  "The bike is fine, Alec; I drive it better than you do."

"Since when?" he protested, but she could see his heart wasn't in it.

"As far as the not part of good, let's start with Ames White sending his buddies to burn down orphanages and work our way up." 

"Do you mind?" he asked, inclining his head towards his small but apparently bright child.  "We can talk about White and the f-i-r-e later."

Logan jumped in before Max could respond.  "It can wait, but we do have to talk about it.  We need to figure out who the target or targets were."

Alec stared at Logan, and then at the array of computer equipment in front of him.  "I thought that's what you've been working on for the past half-hour.  You telling me you've been playing Solitaire instead?"

"I need more information, Alec."

"I second that."  Max raised her hand in the air and waved it slightly for attention.  "If we can't talk about the f-i-r-e, then how about the part where you have a kid you never told me about?  Never told any of us about."  She perched on the edge of an armchair.  "That an easier jumping off point?"

"It was complicated," Alec answered quietly.  "And I told you once before that you had to be there to understand."

"Manticore?  Guess what; I was there.  And I remember the breeding program, okay?"  She grimaced, though there were traces of affection in her voice when she continued, "Trust me, I remember it vividly."

Alec appreciated the fact that she could smile about their past now, but his own past was dogging him and dragging him back to where he didn't want to go.

"That's not how it... she... happened.  In fact," he leaned over and gently tugged at a loose golden curl as 49614 smiled up at him, "she's how the program got started."

"Say again?"

"She's the first..." he began, before a voice from the hall interrupted him.

"First?"

"You brought Joshua," Alec said in a low voice as he rolled his eyes at her.  "Of course you did.  Because you speeding off on your motorcycle alone wouldn't attract nearly as many reporters." 

"He was worried about you," she hissed.

"Well whose fault was that?" Alec hissed back.  He waved to the tall dog-man hovering in the doorway and raised his voice.  "Come on in, buddy."

Joshua shambled into the room slowly, his eyes fixed on the little girl playing with his paints.  She seemed oblivious to him at first, but as he moved closer she looked up, and then scooted back against Alec in alarm.

"Hey, it's okay."  Alec leaned over her and wrapped his arms around her small, shaking form, pulling her over onto his lap.  "Joshua's a friend.  He would never hurt you; do you understand?  He's one of us."

"First," Joshua said softly.  He patted his chest as he squatted down in front of the child.  "Joshua first too."

"That's right," Alec said.  "Joshua is the first transgenic, and you're the first... multiple transgenic?  Transgenic once removed?"

"Second generation transgenic," Logan suggested absently, his attention once more caught by a story on recent fires he'd pulled up on his computer.

"But she's not the first," Max jumped in.  "Tinga's little boy, Case, is a couple of years older than she must be."

"Yeah, but it took a few years before he showed any signs of her enhanced DNA," Alec explained.  "And he doesn't have a barcode, lucky kid."  A moment later he realized 49614 might take his comment the wrong way and hastened to reassure her, "Not that a barcode is bad, monkey.  We all have them.  Well not Joshua, and not..."

Max leaned over and waved her hand in front of his face.  "Earth to Alec.  How would you know about Case's non-existent barcode?"

"I... might have done a little snooping in Renfro's files."  A hint of his usual cocky smile darted across Alec's lips at the memory.  It hadn't netted him any information on his daughter's whereabouts, but it had bought a little of his self-respect back.  "And according to what I read, he's half plain old human... sorry, Logan."

Logan waved away his apology.  "I'm used to it," he said with a wry smile.

"But I don't understand why she has a barcode," Max said with a puzzled frown.  "I mean maybe Tinga's husband explains about Case, but Gem's little girl Regan doesn't have one either and her father is an X5."

Alec shrugged; medical mysteries weren't really his style.  "Well my kid does.  And even though she was an..." he started to say 'accident,' but then thought better of it.  "She was a surprise," he finally settled on, "but Renfro decided she had potential.  She was the first product of two X5's who immediately showed signs of transgenic breeding.  Then when you had your little temper tantrum in the DNA lab," he raised an eyebrow at Max, "she went from an anomaly to the new solution.  The new wave in genetic research... inherited manipulated DNA."

"Sounds like she's going to be quite a handful as she grows up."  Logan's smile radiated innocence; as far as Max and Joshua could tell he was just making an effort to rejoin the conversation.  "She'll need people around her who really understand who she is and what she needs."

Alec's back stiffened as he pulled away from his daughter and sat up.  He knew exactly where Logan was going with his oblique comments, and he didn't appreciate it.

"Never had parents myself," the X5 drawled, "so I can't say for sure.  But I thought that sort of thing was pretty common.  Doesn't every kid go through a stage when they feel like an alien?"

"And then there's the lucky ones who find out they really are one."  Max squatted down in front of the soon-to-be newest resident of Terminal City and ran her finger down the child's warm, soft cheek.  "Welcome to the wonderful world of Freaks 'R' Us, baby."

"She's not a freak," Alec said sharply.

Max raised her hands in surrender; she was startled by Alec's defensive tone, but oddly touched by it as well.  "Hey, it's just the pot calling the kettle a genetically engineered cooking utensil.  We are what we are, Alec; that's what Terminal City is all about."

"I know," he conceded quickly, "it's just..."

"I'm sure it's just a sensitive subject," Logan finished for him.    "I don't think Alec wanted to pass on some of the... burdens... of your genetic make-up, that's all."

"Say, how did you get to the point where you were passing on anything?" Max asked curiously.  "They didn't exactly encourage that at Manticore, unless you were part of the breeding program."

Alec cast a panicked look down at his wide-eyed child.  She seemed to be listening with great interest, and a frightening intelligence.  He had a sudden sinking conviction that she had understood every word spoken thus far, and all of it would add up to one massive therapy bill in later years.

"Max, this really isn't the right..."

"Hungry," 49614 announced suddenly.  "Want eat."

In an instant her father had swept her up into his arms and gotten to his feet.

"She's hungry," he said with relief.  "I'm going to go in the kitchen and find her something to eat that doesn't require cooking."  He looked down at the little girl as he explained, "Cooking isn't really my style.  And if that's hereditary... uh, sorry."

"Little hot dogs," Joshua suggested helpfully.  "Joshua have many cans of them when he lives here."

"And I haven't touched them," Logan assured Alec.  "I wouldn't."  He saw the wounded expression on Joshua's face a second too late, prompting him to add, "Because to me little hot dogs are a party food, and since this is the first party I've had here... break out those dogs."

* * * * *

Joshua trailed after Alec into the kitchen, as Alec's daughter watched him warily over her father's shoulder.  Logan used the time alone with Max to fill her in on what he had learned so far from Alec, minus the revelation that the X5 did not plan on keeping his long-lost daughter.  That would be Alec's job to explain.  What he did say added up to a whole lot of nothing as far as Max was concerned, but despite her opinion that Logan's story lacked sufficient detail, he had barely finished speaking when Alec walked back into the living room.

"So where's your entourage?"  Max glanced over his shoulder, but Alec was alone.

"She's decided she likes Joshua."  Alec nodded at the smeared white board on the floor.  "Maybe Sandeman spread that artistic DNA around.  I think they're redesigning the label for those little hot dogs even as we speak." 

"Yeah, you know speaking is what we need to be doing," Max said quickly.  "Alec..."

She was too late.  Alec's attention was already drifting back towards his child as an unfamiliar sensation overcame him:  worry.    He scratched the back of his neck and looked anxiously down the hallway leading to the kitchen.  "Say, does, uh, anybody know how many of those hot dog things a little kid can eat?  I mean how many should they eat?"

"You actually let her eat them?"  Logan rose from his computer desk in alarm and started towards the kitchen. 

"Logan, wait."  Max slipped into his path, holding her arms out to block his exit.  "We're talking transgenic stomachs here.  She could probably eat the can and be okay."

Logan relaxed immediately, but Alec had a harder time letting go of his anxiety.  His embarrassment over his anxiety wasn't any picnic to shake either.

"Okay, okay; so I don't know too much about kids," he said defensively. 

"Just enough to be dangerous," Max muttered.

Alec heard the tone, and he knew he was in for it.  There was no room for escape this time; he might as well surrender to the inevitable.

"All right, Max, hit me."  He flung his arms wide and strode into the center of the living room.  "Give it your best shot.  Both barrels.  Wide open."

Max watched him silently, which both Alec and Logan found disturbing.

"Come on, Maxie," Alec coaxed, "you can do it."  He wiggled his fingers in the direction of his exposed chest.  "Let 'er rip.  Figuratively speaking, of course."

She still said nothing.

"Maxie?"  Alec frowned and abruptly dropped his hands to his sides.  "Well now you're just creeping me out," he said flatly. 

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Ouch."  He winced at her calm, reasonable tone.  Angry Max was a known quantity, but Hurt Max required a whole different set of operating instructions.  "I think I would've made out better with the fists."

"This isn't a joke, Alec.  I thought we were, well, friends.  Something like that anyway."

Now he was scared; this wasn't the way it was supposed to go down.  "We are," he said intently.  "We are friends, Max."

She wasn't buying his earnest act any more than she'd ever fallen for his charm.  "Friends don't keep these kind of secrets from each other."

"Oh, so you're telling me you were straight up with Original Cindy about your designer DNA from Day 1?"  He didn't give her a chance to answer before he charged forward.  "I know Sketchy didn't know until the hostage situation; does that mean he's not your friend?"

"It's not the same," she insisted.  "I would have been trusting them with my life."

"And I would have been trusting you with her life," he countered.  "Even though most of the time you seemed like you'd be happier if the nearest hover drone crash landed into my skull."

"Hey," Logan said quickly, "go easy, Alec.  It's been a big day for everybody and I think we're all a little stressed."

"Well maybe we wouldn't be so stressed if we'd known what was going on," Max said coolly.  "Maybe we could've even helped; did you ever think of that?" she challenged Alec.

On a normal day he would have had a quick comeback, probably one tailored to send her temper spiraling ever upwards.  Today Alec could only nod somberly as he threw himself into one of the armchairs. 

"Every damn day," he answered. 

She was taken aback by his admission that she was right; usually it required literal arm-twisting, and a few uppercuts, to get him to agree with her that the sky was blue.  Of course this being Seattle, a lot of the time he was onto something with the non-blue idea... but that had nothing to do with this situation, she reassured herself.

"Then why didn't you?  My god, Alec, why didn't you tell me the night Manticore burned down?  I had no idea there were babies in those buildings."

"They were in a separate facility adjacent to the compound."  His voice was as stony as his face, providing what he hoped was sufficient cover for the raw state of his true emotions.  "When I saw the barracks were on fire I went to check it out, but they'd cleaned the place out lock, stock and lollipop." 

"Makes sense," Logan said quietly.  "They were trying to say the Manticore facility was a VA hospital; how do you fit children into that scenario?"

"She was already gone anyway; she'd been gone for months."

"And you've been trying to find her, like I was trying to find my brothers and sisters."  Alec nodded stiffly, stoking her anger, though she was no longer sure who she was really mad at.  "But see I was smart.  Once I met Logan I... check out this concept... I asked for help."

"Max," Logan began, but she wasn't finished yet.

"You know the kind of contacts Logan has... you've always known.  He could've helped you find her ages ago."

Alec rubbed his aching forehead and gazed bleakly at Max through his fingers.  "Ages ago?  Would that be after I let you infect him with the retrovirus so I could get you both back to Manticore?  Or would after I used his virus cure money to pay for my personal bomb disposal have been a better time?"

Logan felt the need to protest, despite the fact that he could see where Alec was coming from.  "That was a long time ago.  After all that we three have been through together over the past year, I would hope you'd know you could come to me for help with something as major as this."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Logan wished them back.  Alec had asked his help with something every bit as important, and even though they hadn't spoken of it since he was pretty sure Alec already knew there was nothing less he wanted to do. 

"Logan, I know you would've helped me.  You're a stand-up guy."  Feeling he owed Logan a full explanation as thanks for all the help he had provided this day, Alec expounded on his praise, although every word mocked him with what he lacked in comparison.  "In fact, you're Mr. Saves-the-World-on-a-Weekly-Basis.  And that's great.  But... people notice you doing the saving."

"That's not true," Logan objected.  "Eyes Only..."

"Is a really swell beard, I'll grant you.  People don't notice Logan Cale, mild-mannered reporter, when he says he's working on a story for Eyes Only.  But people, especially the bad guys, do remember where he was looking, and who he was doing it for." 

Alec gritted his teeth behind the mask of his bland smile.  Logan still looked a little put out, and Max wasn't buying a word of it.  Even praising Logan apparently fell flat of everyone's expectations; he just couldn't win.  But still he had to try to get through to the man. 

"They notice what Eyes Only is up to, and I couldn't risk that.  I needed to find her quietly, without setting off any signals that might have led the wrong people to her before me."

"Ames White," Logan said with a reluctant nod.  He didn't like the feeling that his actions could be so easily read by others, but he was beginning to see why Alec might think so.  He was also beginning to see why the transgenic might not think he was going to be a candidate for Father of the Year any time soon.

"You got it, brother.  Bad enough he was after Max's transgenic ass morning, noon and night; I didn't want to give him a new target whose only defense is spitting up.  It's not like she's a Gossamer or anything."

His explanation only touched off yet another sore spot for Max.  "How do you know she isn't?  It's not like you know more than half of what's in her."

Alec's jaw tightened as he glanced from Max to Logan.  "Now how did I know we were gonna have to hash that out too?" he muttered.  "Well, heck, it's not like it was private or anything."

"Alec..." Max's voice switched from sarcastic to plaintive as she sat on the battered sofa near his chair.  She was tired of fighting with him; she was tired of fighting period.  "I just want to understand.  I can't help if I don't, and I really do want to help."

"What's there to understand?  It happened, the drugs they were giving me didn't play nicely with birth control, and ten months later..."

She held up her hand to quiet him.  "That's not what I mean.  Logan said you only met her once, and you said this was before the breeding program kicked off, so what's the deal?  I know Manticore; they wouldn't have been looking to hook you up for the senior prom, so what..."

He didn't often let it get to him that she had escaped Manticore and he still seemed to carry it with him like a stain he could never get clean.  He knew she hadn't had an easy life on the outside either, and anyway it was done.  Over.

Except on days like today.

"You know Manticore?"  Alec's sharp laugh cut her off like a dash of cold water to the face.  "You don't know anything about Manticore, little girl.  How many times do I have to tell you that?"

She stood up abruptly and placed one hand on each hip as she glared down at him.  Apparently being nice and sympathetic was only going to get her more stonewalling at best, and maybe just a kick in the teeth.

"You know, I'm getting pretty sick of you playing the pity card because I had the guts to leave and you didn't."

"I didn't have a Zack and 10 other kids to provide a distraction," he snapped back.  "And after you left things got just a little... strict."   

"Okay, okay."  Logan quickly stepped between them, figuring neither of them was quite to the point of shedding his blood if they couldn't get to each other's.  "I don't really see how comparing battle scars is going to get us anywhere."

But Max was not in the mood to give in so easily, especially when Alec had yet to apologize for lying to her.  "I wasn't just there as a kid," she insisted.  "When I got caught last year and they tried to 'reeducate' me, that was..."

"That was nothing," Alec said flatly.  "You think they actually believed they could rehabilitate you after you spent half your life on the outside?"

"They did okay with Brin." 

He swallowed the angry protest that sprang to his lips; he knew Brin was a difficult subject for Max.  She had let Manticore take her "big sister" back to save her life, and then Brin had turned around and helped Renfro capture another one of their sisters.  Now Tinga was dead, and Brin was in Terminal City trying to live down her past.  It was a feeling he was only too familiar with, which is why he usually cut Max some extra slack. 

Usually.

"They got lucky with Brin," he countered.  "She was half dead when they started.  But you?  They made a token effort, just to keep the fear of God and Renfro in everyone, but they never expected it to take."

"And they thought you were so easy to housebreak?" she scoffed.  "Guess again."

"They didn't have a choice."   For a minute he sounded much more like Ben than happy-go-lucky Alec; so much so, in fact, that it scared her.  "I lived my whole life there, and then as soon as I got my first hall pass I went native on them.  They had to make me fit back into the groove or else the guys with the checkbooks would start thinking twice about funding."

"So they tortured you by throwing blondes at you?  Oh, poor baby."

Something dark flashed through Alec's hazel eyes; a pain he would never acknowledge, even if he released some of the accompanying anger.  He couldn't explain it to Max; the truth was he didn't want to.  He didn't want her to know how low he had sunk that night. 

Part of him had been fooled by his transgenic partner's guise, but another part of him just didn't want to admit that this wasn't Rachel with him, alone with him and saying all the things they never had a chance to say to each other.  It was the only night he'd ever made love to the girl he adored, and all the while a part of him had known he was actually aiding the plans of the people who helped him kill her. 

"They wanted to teach me that one woman is pretty much the same as the next, especially when it comes to sex."  Alec forced his voice to be calm; he leaned heavily on the lessons learned in those dark days in the Manticore dungeons.  "A little make-up, a little shape-shifting and you too can have all the spice of life with none of the commitment."

"You don't believe that," she said flatly.   

"Face it, Max; you don't know what I believe.  Right now you're thinking you never knew me at all."  He smiled at her then, the old Alec 'I'm always fine' smile that it took her so long to notice never reached his eyes.  "And I'm thinking that you're right." 

* * * * *

"All right, people, let's get organized here."  Mole waited a moment and then switched to what should have been a more familiar method of address.  "Attention!"

The majority of the small crowd continued to ignore Mole however, even after he tapped the butt of his gun on the makeshift podium.  He scowled at the few overly social transgenics in the back who couldn't seem to stop talking, and prepared to fire his weapon at the ceiling instead.  Luke's hand shot out just in time and pulled the gun down to point towards the floor once more.

"Yo!  Eyes front, pie holes closed, on the double!" Luke barked, but his tough guy Mole imitation was somewhat spoiled when he turned to his role model and anxiously asked, "Did I do it right?"

"Ditch diggers," Mole grumbled, chewing savagely on his cigar. 

"What's the occasion?" Brin asked quietly from her post near the door.  "Dix said it had something to do with Alec."

Mole eyed her warily.  She hadn't said much to anyone in the three weeks that she had been in Terminal City, and despite the fact that Max claimed her as "family," the only one Brin seemed to be at ease with was Alec.  That might have had something to do with her so-called little sister giving her at least a cool shoulder if not outright cold, but neither one of the women actually said enough about the other to make anyone certain of anything.  The only reason he'd sent Dix to get her at all was because Alec seemed to think she was okay.

"Unconfirmed rumors have now been confirmed: we have a new resident on her way to Terminal City," Mole answered at last, switching his attention to his small group of chosen listeners.  "Or she will be on her way after all these damn reporters clear out.  And since she only managed to get away from Manticore today, seems like we should do something to welcome her home."

Brin smiled slightly at the sight of gruff and grumpy Mole trying not to sound sentimental.  Alec swore there was a marshmallow somewhere underneath that tough lizard skin, but until today she'd thought he was just teasing.  The only problem was that something in his apparent hospitality didn't track.

"Manticore was dismantled almost a year ago," she pointed out.  "Who couldn't have gotten away from them in all that time?"

"Someone who couldn't walk, that's who," Luke jumped in to answer.  "Course she probably could after a little while, but even an X5 isn't born knowing how to escape and evade.  They just learn it faster than the rest of us."

The snorts and guffaws circulating the room made Brin a little uneasy, and not just because she seemed to be the only X5 in the room.  She was still trying to figure out her place here in Terminal City, and with every cool glance she received from Max she was made more aware of her status as an outcast among the outcasts.  Only Alec, who probably knew more about her recent Manticore activities than anyone, didn't seem to care what she'd been doing for the evil empire or since it fell; at least that's how it felt to her.

"Our new resident is... and this one you're not gonna believe, people."  Mole grinned around his stogie, relishing his moment in the spotlight.  "It's Alec's kid."

Mole had expected disbelief, and some out and out laughter, and he was not disappointed.  It was Brin's clear voice that cut through the confusion, however, and inadvertently stole his thunder.

"He found 49614?"

* * * * *

 "Should've known he'd be good at this," Max grumbled.  She stared out at the tiny backyard, as though the intensity of her gaze would somehow alter the annoying, and annoyingly cute, image that greeted her.  "He can't be more than 12 himself."

"That old?" Logan asked dubiously. 

Truthfully, he was getting a little tired of the subject of Alec and his new status as a parent, but it seemed to be the only thing on Max's mind.  And while Logan could have easily channeled his frustration into net searches, knowing he was helping at the same time, Max could only help by watching and worrying.  And by talking about how worrying it was to only be able to watch.

"Max, why don't you go out there," he suggested, as much for his benefit as hers.

"No," she sighed, "I think Alec is still kind of steamed at me.  Besides, they look like they're doing fine on their own."  Max turned away from the kitchen window and leaned against the sink.  "Where did he manage to find a ball in this house?"

"The basement, probably.  From the looks of it, I'd say we could find pretty much everything but Sandeman down there."

She crossed the small room and slid into the chair next to Logan, drumming her fingers on the table in a vain attempt to settle her restless nerves.  "They're playing ball with her... do you realize how weird that is?"

"So we're back to that again."  This time it was Logan's turn to sigh as he got to his feet and went in search of the coffee he'd bought last week.  He had a feeling this was going to be a very long day and he'd better refuel whenever he got the chance.  "What's so strange about playing ball?"

"Uh, because we don't know how," she snapped.  "You think they spent a lot of time at Manticore teaching us to play softball and hopscots..."

"Hopscotch," he corrected her with a smile.  "And no, I never thought Manticore's idea of gym class was anything like the Seattle public school system."

"Got that right," she said with a snort and a toss of her long, dark hair. 

"But anyone can figure out how to toss a ball to a toddler, Max, especially when you've got genetically enhanced reflexes on either end of the deal."  He reached up into the cupboard and fumbled around for a mug.  "I imagine the hard part is keeping Joshua from chasing it."

She made a face at him.  "He's gonna be great with her too, you wait and see.  Not even two years old and she's got her own private art instructor; I can already tell she's gonna love that.  Plus," she raised her index finger for emphasis, "can't you just picture the piggyback rides?  She'll think she's on Mt. Everest during an earthquake."

Logan stiffened as he withdrew the mug and carefully set it down on the counter.  "Max, you might want to wait on the plans until things are a little more settled."

"I'm not making plans, Logan."  She looked surprised at the thought.  "But it's about time Alec did.  He's going to have to change his whole way of life and he's not gonna be able to do it alone, even if he thinks he can."

He turned around and looked at her, his blue eyes warm and steady behind the glasses.  Yet there was a sadness about him she didn't understand.  "I know you'll help him however you can, and you know you can count on me too." 

Max slid off her chair and stood close to Logan, close enough to touch him if she dared.  "I do know," she said softly.  "I just hope you know how much that means to me."

"Are we walking in on something the kid can't see?" Alec asked from the doorway.  He glanced down at his daughter standing next to him, her hand tightly gripping his fingers.  "Because we can go back outside for a few more minutes."

Max spun away from Logan and leaned against the counter, her arms folded across her chest.  "You can go outside any time, but there's no need for her to leave.  She has manners," Max added pointedly. 

"Max and Logan try to get busy?" Joshua asked as he squeezed in the entrance behind Alec. 

"Hey," Alec said sharply.  "Time to watch the language, big guy."

"Joshua sorry."  He hung his head, prompting an immediate wave of guilt in Alec.

"It's okay, buddy.  Just think before you talk."  He clapped the larger man on the shoulder.  "You're the best of us at that anyway."

"Not really," Logan murmured.  If anyone measured his words to ensure minimum exposure, it was Alec.

"Hey, has Mole called?" Alec asked as he settled 49614 on a kitchen chair and gave her one of the pens she and Joshua had been drawing with earlier.  "Is it safe to go back to Terminal City yet?  I'm not real wild about being out here for White to trip over, at least not until we know if his men really did set the fi..." he glanced down at 49614, "f-i-r-e."

"He called a few minutes ago," Max reported.  "Connection's still bad, but before we lost it he told me to tell you to give it another hour.  If the last reporter hasn't left by then he's going to call in a bomb threat at City Hall and knock him loose that way."

Logan accidentally spilled some Sumatran blend on the floor as he spun around to stare at Max.  "He was kidding, right?  He's not really going to call in a phony threat like that."

Max smiled at his naïveté; Logan was, in her opinion, at his most adorable when he tried to apply real world logic to transgenics.  "His first choice was actually planting a bomb; I managed to talk him into the phony threat."

Alec leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands behind his head, smiling with every sign of satisfaction.  "It's good to have friends, isn't it, Josh?" 

"Play now," 49614 suddenly announced.  "Play ball.  Now."

Max snuck a quick peak at Alec; he seemed relaxed again, almost his old self, and there was no apparent trace of his earlier bitterness.  He might even be safe for human company again, she decided, or at least transgenic.

"Hey sweetie, could I play with you this time?"  Max smiled down at the little girl.  "It looked like a lot of fun."

Alec sat up in his chair.  "Actually that's a good idea.  Before we go back to Terminal City I want to take a look at that stuff Logan's been pulling in and not telling me about."

Logan flushed and tried to pretend he was deeply interested in the getting the ground coffee precisely level in the scoop.  "I didn't think you'd noticed that," he said softly.  "I didn't find anything that couldn't wait a few hours.  If you guys want to play some more, go for it."

"No, right now this is more important."  Alec picked up 49614 and set her down on the ground.  "You don't need me to play, do you?  You guys can do just fine without me."

"No," the child said quickly.  She wrapped her arms around his leg and hung on with all her might.  "Stay Daddy."

"Hey, it's okay; it's all good."  With a wince at his progeny's unexpected strength, he bent over and gently detached her from his leg.  "I'll be right in here if you need me," he promised.  "You yell, I come running; it's that simple."

Joshua squatted down next to 49614, though with his great height he still forced her to crane her neck to see his face.

"Joshua play ball too," he said softly. 

"That's right, you know Uncle Josh likes to play ball."  Alec pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head and turned her towards Joshua, who now sported a dazed smile at his sudden promotion.  "The two of you need to show Aunt Maxie how it's done, monkey."

"I'm gonna let you get away with the name one more time, just because it's a special day.  But after this... watch out."  Max reached down and took the child's hand, starting to guide her towards the door.  A moment later a realization stopped her.  "Alec, you can't keep calling her 'monkey.'  I mean first of all it makes no sense.  And it's not a real name."

"You named a kid 'Bullet'," he protested, hoping to divert her.

"It's not the same; he was old enough to say no.  Plus the kid just got shot, so it made sense.  But she deserves a real name."

Alec looked at his daughter, and then looked away, trying to avoid catching Logan's eye as he sought an escape route.  "So I've been told," he muttered.

"Play," 49614 insisted, reaching out to grab Joshua's hand with her free one.  "Now."

Alec immediately brightened; this kid had really great timing for getting him out of jams.  "You heard the lady.  Play.  Now."  He pointed to the door, not dropping his hand until they were safely out and the door was closed.

* * * * *

Ames White pulled a picture of his son Ray from the bottom drawer of his desk.  It was Ray's first, and last, school picture; one he'd never shown it to Otto, or any of his other coworkers.  Even before Wendy lost control and wrecked all their lives, he'd considered his family life private.  The time he spent communing with his memories of it was private as well.

"Just hold on a little longer, Ray," he whispered to the smiling boy in the frame.  "Daddy will be there soon."

Soon.  Soon he would have his son back.  Soon he would have the transgenics, especially 452, right where he wanted them.  Soon the Conclave would forgive him completely for his father's transgressions.

Soon.

First, though, he had to decide whom he could trust with Stage 3. 

He had been taught from birth to trust the Conclave and the Familiars; nothing his father later tried to tell him could alter those early lessons.  But the Conclave saw 49614 as a means to one end, not to several, and they wouldn't be pleased that he was taking matters into his own hands.  It wasn't what he'd been told to do; not how he'd been told to handle the transgenic problem in general, or her in particular.

49614 was proof that the mutants could pass on their artificially acquired abilities to a new generation.  She, and all the children like her, had to be destroyed immediately, before word got out.  No one else should ever know that there were beings other than the Familiars who could survive what was to come.  White had no argument with that.

Unfortunately he couldn't say the same for his NSA colleagues. 

The government paid he and his men well to capture and kill transgenics; his staff understood and even embraced those concepts.  But their idea of transgenics still ran more to the circus act escapees, while discounting the dangers posed by the more human-looking X-series.  And a juvenile X5?  One barely old enough to walk?  White wasn't at all sure they would be willing to see such a creature for the threat she was, let alone act on the knowledge.  The whole reason for this morning's pep talk had been to prepare them for that eventuality, but from the look on some of their faces as they left the conference room, he still had a long way to go.

He was walking a tightrope these days, and it was being stretched thinner by the minute.  He'd tried to tell himself that he didn't need the NSA; first and always he was a Familiar.  But the truth was that his value to the Conclave was partially dependent on this job.  It offered him a unique opportunity to advance their agenda and he wasn't willing to give that up.

Somehow he had to convince the Conclave that he was right to let 49614 live to serve a purpose, and then he had to convince the NSA she had to die to serve another one.

Most important of all, he couldn't let either side know that he had his own agenda; one he would see to completion at any cost.

Which brought him back to... he slammed his fist down on the desk... Stage 3.

* * * * *

"So what aren't you telling me, Logan?"  Alec took one last glance out the kitchen window and then resolutely turned away, just in time to see Logan and his coffee cup vanish into the hallway leading to the living room.  "Logan!"

Logan poked his head around the corner into the kitchen again.  "You want answers?  They're in here."  He grimaced at the thought.  "What there are of them, that is."

"Oh goody; it's going to be one of those stories."  Alec rolled his eyes and followed Logan into the living room.

"I started with the foundling home," Logan said as he seated himself in front of his beloved computers.  "You know, to see if there were any government... federal government... connections.  Any contracts for services provided, any staffing... anything."

"To see if the rest of the kids were transgenic too," Alec said, following Logan's thought pattern.  "Manticore, or what's left of it, wouldn't foot the bill for just one kid.  So were there any?  Contracts, I mean.  People?  Anything?"

"Not a one, at least not that I can tell.  So far it look like it was just what it seemed to be:  a home for children who lost their parents, not ones who..."

"Never had any," Alec finished for him.  He sighed heavily and threw himself down onto one of the couches.  "Great.  That means they were probably after her specifically."

"That's what I thought.  Although I admit the name thing had me convinced otherwise at first.  I mean why would she still be called by a number if she was in a run-of-the-mill orphanage?"

Alec rolled his head on the cushion so that he could see Logan at his computer desk.  "She didn't say that was what she was called; you wanted to know her name and she told you."

Logan waited to see if that was supposed to be an answer or a punchline.  When it became clear that Alec was serious, he continued.

"Yeah, well, next step was the hospital records.  I wasn't actually expecting to find much there, but instead I found nothing."  He looked steadily at Alec, trying to find a gentle way of explaining his concern.  "And that's not good either."

"Wait, you're confusing me."  Alec sat up and stared at him.  "You said you didn't expect to find..."

"Much.  But I should have found something," Logan explained.  "Some record of her being there, being admitted, being examined.  Instead," he spread his hands wide, "zip.  It's like she was never there."

"Uh oh," Alec groaned as comprehension dawned.  "You're thinking the nurse was part of it.  Maybe one of the Familiars."

Logan nodded unhappily; there were times when he really hated his ability to ferret out information, and the more bars were piled up to imprison this little girl in her genetic heritage, the greater that hate grew.

"And not just the nurse," he was forced to tell Alec.  "I may be wrong about this part... firefighters are required to file reports for insurance and medical purposes too, but they're not always as prompt as medical personnel need to be.  But that firefighter who supposedly found her wandering around?  I can't find any mention of someone doing that during this fire.  They talk about rescuing children from inside the building, and they talk about the ones they couldn't get to in time..."

"God," Alec breathed.  "I never even thought... all those other kids."  Caught up as he was in the painful miracle of his own child's return, he hadn't given any thought to the children who might not have been so lucky.

"But there's no mention of a little girl being found outside the structure.  Now maybe the detective had the story wrong; that's possible.  But..."

"But given the givens," Alec jumped in, "you're thinking not."

"I'm thinking not," Logan agreed.  "I'm also thinking it might not be a coincidence that you got her back."  He hesitated before posing his next question, but it had to be asked.  "Alec, I know you memorized her barcode, but still... are you sure she's..."

"Positive," Alec broke in.  "She's mine, Logan.  The barcode matches and so does everything else from the first time I saw her."

Still Logan couldn't quite shake his suspicion.  "She was awfully small then, and babies tend to look a lot alike.  Telling one from the other, especially if you're not used to them... anyone can make a mistake."

Alec smiled ruefully.  He didn't blame Logan for his doubts, but it was a little embarrassing to have to explain how he knew they were unfounded.  "You're gonna make me go all girly, aren't you?  I know it's her, Logan.  I just know."

There was no further argument Logan could offer; he wasn't even sure one was merited.  He could see the certainty in Alec's eyes as clearly as he'd always been able to see the con jobs.

"Then we move on from there."

"What a mess."  Alec groaned and buried his face in his hands.  "I've got to get this straightened out.  I can't do anything until I know she's safe."

Being the transgenic's confidante was not a position Logan had chosen, or would have chosen, but somehow here he was.  For all their sake's, but particularly for the sake of the little girl playing ball in his backyard, he couldn't afford to blow it.

"So you're... still thinking about going ahead with it?" he asked in a carefully neutral voice.  "Giving her up?"

His gut clenched at hearing the words spoken out loud, but Alec forced himself to face Logan, and himself, as he answered.  "Why wouldn't I be?  Nothing you've said changes what I am."

"Is that what has to change?  Because if it is, raising her will probably take care of that."  Logan tried a small smile on for size, though he doubted Alec would buy it.  "Or so all my friends who have kids tell me."

Alec counted to ten, grinding his teeth the whole time.  He was willing to give Logan the benefit of the doubt and assume the human meant well.  That didn't mean he had to like where Logan's good intentions led him.

"You didn't tell Max, did you?" 

Logan took the subject change in stride.  "I thought that was your job," he said evenly.  "If you really intend to go through with this, you have to at least be able to say the words."

"Say that I'm giving my kid up to strangers?"  Alec's face was bleak.  "Yeah, that's an easy one to fit into casual conversation." 

"So don't do it."

"It's not that simple, Logan."

"What's so complex about it?"  Logan abandoned his computers and went to sit down in the chair next to Alec, determined to talk calmly and reasonably about this.  With Max and her passionate nature safely shut outside, he figured he had a better than even shot.  "She needs a father; you happen to be the one who lucked out and got to be hers.  And they all lived happily ever after." 

Alec wasn't looking for sympathy, and what he saw in Logan's eyes nearly undid him, but he made himself get past it.  He didn't need Logan's pity; he needed his help.  And the only way to get it was to convince the man that he was absolutely sure of what he was doing and why it had to be done.

"What has Max been wishing for since the day she met you?  Hell, since the night she left Manticore?"  He leaned forward, drilling into Logan's soul with his eyes.  "A normal life, a normal family; things people who weren't conceived in test tubes just assume everybody gets a shot at."

Logan pulled himself out of the pull of those hazel eyes with force.  Alec had all the requisite skills of a snake charmer, he reminded himself, and little compunction about using them.  His sincerity was not to be found by direct confrontation; he had to be tricked into exposing it.

"Now who's simplifying things?  Families come in all shapes and sizes, Alec.  To that little girl, you are her family; she doesn't need more."

Alec choked out an unhappy laugh.  "Exactly how much did it hurt to say that?"

"You have no idea."  Logan wiped the small smile from his face and got back to business.  "But I was being serious.  Children need love, not a prescribed number of parents to give it.  And you love her, I can tell."

"Then let me do what's best for her."  Alec didn't bother to deny Logan's charge; he wasn't going to lie but admitting the truth helped no one.  "This isn't some sudden panic attack, you know.  I've been looking for her for a long time, and even before that... I always wanted her to have the stuff that others kids take for granted.  Stuff that I never got to have." He sighed and ran his hand through his dark blond hair until stray locks stood up straight all over his head.  "I don't want her growing up into some sort of freak because I was too selfish to let her go.  I'm trying to do the right thing."

"It doesn't happen that often, Logan," Max said sharply from the doorway.  "Don't make him lose his place."

* * * * *

"Fe' nos tol."

White had been on his way out the door when his cell phone rang; he answered it thinking he could talk as he walked.  But the greeting he received made that an impossibility.

"Fe' nos tol," he said in reply as he closed his office door again.

"Our sister has told us the transfer went smoothly."

"It did," White agreed cautiously.  He knew the next few minutes would be crucial; he couldn't afford to waste a single syllable, or miss a solitary nuance in the Familiar's voice.

"So X5-494 has the child now?"

"He does."

A heavy sigh reverberated through the line.  "You are asking us to trust you with a great deal, Brother.  You had the girl in your possession and you deliberately let her get away."

"As bait, my Brother," White said quickly.  "She's our best chance for netting X5-452."

"You still believe 452 will risk everything to rescue this child?  A child she barely knows?"

"A transgenic child," White corrected him, making sure his tone remained sufficiently respectful.  "And not just any transgenic child.  There are rumors about she and 494; I don't know that I necessarily believe them, but..."

"We are risking so much on locker room gossip?"  The Familiar's voice grew louder, warning White that it was time to take control of the conversation.

"No, we are risking it on 452 herself, on all we have learned of her over the past year.  We can't beat her if we fight on her terms; we need her to bring the fight to us.  And the best way to do that is to use one of her own as bait; one who can't fight back for herself."

"For your sake, I hope you are right, my Brother."  The Familiar's tone grew warmer, hinting at a smile.  "The consequences of you being wrong are, after all, not something either of us wish to contemplate."

* * * * *

Alec rolled his eyes from Logan to Max and then back again, inwardly struggling to project the casual attitude that had become like a second skin for him.  "You gotta get a sliding door or something for that hallway, man.  Next thing we know White's gonna be out there and get all offended 'cause we're saying bad things about him."

"Did I hear right?" Max demanded.  "You want to give her away?  What, she's back for like ten minutes and already she's cramping your style?"

Alec was on his feet in an instant, all signs of apathy vanished as though they had never been.  "Don't even go there, Max," he growled.  "You have no idea what I've been thinking about this and..."

"No, I don't," she interrupted, "because you conveniently forgot to mention this was ever an issue.  A kid, I mean.  Your kid."  She glared at him, trying to disguise her pain as anger.  How could she have been so wrong about him?  "Or should I just start calling her your former kid?"

"Where is she?" he snapped, not bothering to acknowledge her snipe.

"Did I actually strike a nerve, Alec?  I was starting to think you didn't have any.  I mean you sure can't have any feelings."

"Where is she?" he demanded again, brushing past her to stride into the kitchen.  A quick glance out the back window assured him that 49614 was still happily playing ball with Joshua, leaving Alec free to yell at Max to his heart's content.

Or her to yell at him; he knew that was actually the more likely scenario.

"She's still outside?" Logan asked when he returned to living room.

"Yeah.  Of course I'm not sure why Max isn't too."  Alec looked at her coolly.  "You made a big deal out of wanting to play with her; was that just to get me off guard?"

"You're in here talking about giving up the kid you just found today... a couple of hours ago, if that... and I'm the bad guy for finding out about it?"  She raised her hands as though in supplication to any higher power that would listen, and then dropped them when no help was immediately offered.  "Even for you that's unbelievable, Alec."

Alec's anger abruptly vanished, leaving him feeling the same cold sick way he had the day Renfro told him his daughter had been shipped off to an undisclosed location "for her own protection."  But now, as then, he had to hold it together and play it cool. 

"Look, it's not like I don't want her.  She's a nice little kid, you know?  I mean she's smart, and she's not really fussy and she's definitely gonna be a heartbreaker when she gets..." Alec's voice fell away when he realized he would never see the time to which he was referring.  After a minute he cleared his throat and tried again.  "She's all good, okay?  But that's exactly why I think she deserves a better deal in life than I can give her."

"I just don't understand how you can think this way."  Her dark eyes were wide with disillusionment.  "We're Manticore, Alec.  We had no homes, no parents, no brothers and sisters except the ones we made for ourselves.  You can already beat that for her just by sticking it out.  You're her father," Max stressed.  "Blood.  Family.  Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Manticore is where you learned that blood matters, Max."  Alec spread his arms wide; behold the orator on his soapbox.  "Blood matters, genes matter..." his arms fell to his side.  "Since when did you start quoting the gospel according to Lydecker?"

Her fist connected with his jaw before either of them could stop it, leaving them both shaken.

"Family matters," she growled.  Her hands were both back at her side, but they were remained clenched into tight fists.  "And sure, maybe you could find her a nice one with two parents and a mailbox, but why try when you're already here for her?  And I'm here, and Joshua is here.  And Logan," she glanced over at the man in question, who nodded slightly.  "And Mole and Luke and Dix and every other transgenic in Terminal City; we're a family now, Alec.  And that's not even counting the gang at Jam Pony... most of them aren't scared of us anymore."

Alec laughed sharply, and then rubbed his jaw at the unexpected resurgence of pain; Max's punch had lost none of its power for all the time she'd been fighting with words as the unofficial head of Terminal City. 

"That's great, Max; just great.  They're not scared of us... most of them, that is.  That's just the kind of life I want for my kid."

Logan had watching them silently, waiting for a chance to get a word in.  Now seemed to be as good a time as any, maybe better since first blood had already been drawn and yet things hadn't progressed to a knockdown drag-out fight.

Yet.

"She's a transgenic, Alec," he said softly.  "She can't help that and neither can you.  She has the barcode to prove it too, so it's not even like she can hide the fact.  People know what it means now."

"I don't want her to have to pretend; don't you get that?  I don't want her to have to pretend that her old man didn't really do the things he did.  That the people around her didn't do them too."  Now Alec's hands were the ones clenched into fists, nails digging into his palms with the stress of trying to not only articulate, but share, his secret fears.  "I want her to grow up with people who don't run every party plan through a tactical database.  People who don't automatically scope out the exits whenever they enter a room in case someone starts shooting up the place.  Parents she can ask about what they were like when they were little... and still be able to sleep at night."

Max's brown eyes went a shade darker as she tried to imagine the future as Alec was seeing it.  "You're afraid she'll be ashamed of you?  Or is it that you think she'll hate you?"

"I am afraid I will get her killed."  Alec spoke slowly and clearly, for the benefit of those who apparently refused to understand.  "I'm afraid she'll have a short and unhappy life being labeled a monster and feeling like she has to continually apologize for who and what she is."  He leaned forward, his face twisted with a pain she had only seen him express once before.  "Until the day White or some other genocidal maniac puts a bullet in the back of her neck thinking it will wash away that barcode-shaped stain under the barrel."

He pulled back and drew several deep but ragged breaths, trying to regain the control he so seldom let slip. 

"Alec, we won't let that happen."  She put her hand on his arm, and pretended not to notice when she felt the muscles tensing beneath her fingertips.  "I'm not trying to shine you on; I'm promising you.  We will protect her."

He shook his head and gently removed her hand, holding it tight within his own for just an instant.  His voice was calm now, but the hazel eyes he raised to her face were grim.  "No, I will protect her, the best way I know how.  And I'll do it without making her grow up in an armed camp."

"Fine," she said recklessly.  "Take her to Canada.  Take her to... France.  Take her anywhere you want."  She didn't stop to let herself think how she would feel if he followed her advice; this wasn't about her.  "Just don't leave her off on some church doorstep for someone else to take care of.  She deserves better than that, Alec."

"She deserves better than me, Max.  And whether you like it or not, whether you give me two thumbs up or stick them both in my eyes, I'm going to see that she gets it."

* * * * *

To Be Continued