Author's Note: Hay25, the pairing will eventually be J/Z. Shayna's only a roadblock. :)

Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish it, Dark Angel is not mine.

Family Relations

By Be Boring

Chapter 6: Still Human After All

Every city looks the same, Jondy thought with some depression. She was having a hard time telling all of the cities apart other than the signs as she drove in. St. Paul had the same dreary, dilapidated buildings as she had seen everywhere else, but the difference here was that she knew Krit was in trouble somewhere. Zack had told her to meet him at an old CD store that was simply a cover for the black market in town. Jondy already had her ideas about what Krit had gotten himself into by the time she reached it and slowed down to see what the situation was, so it didn't come as much of a shock when she saw her tall, dark brother standing about three hundred yards away surrounded by a lot of men with guns. The only relief she had was that they didn't appear to be from Manticore.

Without warning, Zack slid into the truck on the passenger side and pointed to a small garage that sat empty next to a long-deserted house. "Park it in there, then we'll go get him."

"What did he do? Don't tell me he tried to rip off the black market around here."

Zack's expression told her that that was exactly what had happened. "He always underestimates the security these people have. He managed to get past every camera and motion sensor they had in the warehouse, but ended up getting caught by the guard dogs on his way back out. The bags of cash slowed him down enough for them to corner him, and now we're the ones who have to deal with it." After she had parked the truck in the garage, she tilted her head in Krit's direction and raised her eyebrows questioningly. He glanced back at the scene and sighed. "Ok, we're going to come at them from both sides, you from the west, me from the east. I'll go straight into the crowd, so I'll be the distraction. You'll come over the store behind Krit and get him out of there. As long as those men aren't right on top of you, don't worry about them, I'll take care of it. You'll probably have to deal with one or two of them, because I'm sure some will stay back to make sure he doesn't get away while the rest come after me."

"But Zack, kicking the asses of at least ten men is exposure, isn't it?"

"It's only exposure if they can tell the cops what happened." She didn't ask him to explain himself, she knew perfectly well what he meant. Please don't let there be any hoverdrones around, she prayed silently as she followed him to a nearly dead hedge, which was apparently the point where Zack intended to split up. He only had to tilt a hand in the direction of the store and she was off, keeping an eye on the men off to her left to make sure they hadn't noticed her. The dry remainders of the hedge were hardly any protection from sight, but it was all she had. As she slid along, her sensitive ears started to pick up what appeared to be an interrogation.

"You said there were other people with you. Where are they? We've already established that you had all the money, so what was their purpose?"

Krit glared down the other man without flinching. "They were supposed to be helping me avoid all the security measures you had taken, but they bailed at the last minute. Their car backfired as they took off and the dogs woke up, then I came out. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"We've already heard that, but I want to know just how they knew everything we had set up. Was it an inside job? Was somebody you see here one of your coconspirators?"

Krit looked around, carefully scrutinizing every face. "Well, he looks kind of familiar. Wait, no, that's not the right guy. Hey, do I know you? No, no, that's not it." It didn't take much more of this before the man questioning him punched him. Jondy rolled her eyes as she reached the store. If that man knew just what he was dealing with, he would have at least tried to hit him with something like a two-by-four rather than just his bare hand. She backed up, preparing herself for a running jump, and just as the interrogator started yelling, she leapt onto the roof of the tiny store. Despite the severity of what she was supposed to be doing, she couldn't hold back the slight thrill she felt at being part of an X5 mission again. Sure, Zack had given her a rather tiny role, but she was grateful that she wouldn't be going straight into the thick of things her first time out.

Zack's head popped up over the top of one of the thugs' cars. When he spotted her, he gave a swift nod and jumped over the car, landing on a man who hardly looked interested in what was going on. At his shout, the interrogation came to an abrupt halt as everyone else rushed in their direction. Just as Zack had predicted, three men stepped back and surrounded Krit, pulling out their weapons and keeping their backs to him. That was their biggest mistake. Their second biggest mistake was that they only tied his hands, not his feet.

The moment Krit jumped through the loop in his arms so that they were in front of him and grabbed one of his temporary guards, Jondy dropped off the roof and landed on one of the others. The third man wheeled around much faster than she would have expected him to and fired in her direction. She hissed as the bullet grazed her arm, but then lunged forward at him and knocked him to the ground. She heard Krit punch someone behind her, then he was grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the store. "You go up first," he said quickly, and without giving her a choice, gripped both of her legs and pushed her up onto the roof. Once she was all the way up, she turned and reached down an arm to grab his hand.

When she thought about it later, she would remember vaguely hearing the gunshot, but neither she nor Krit heard it at that precise moment. In fact, the only things that gave Jondy any sign that something was wrong were Zack's shout and the sudden bulge of Krit's eyes. If it hadn't been for her training, she might not have been able to continue the mission at the sight of all that blood. It had been a good hit, Krit had been struck in his left lung. She hurriedly pulled him up onto the roof beside her and tore his heavy leather jacket off. Oh my God, please let that have missed his heart, please, please, please. In spite of the fact that he was nearly twice her weight, she wrapped him around her shoulders and dropped down off the store, then took off running for the garage. She could just barely see Zack throwing the men off of himself, and the last thing she saw of them was him grabbing one of their guns.

Krit grunted as she pushed him onto the back of the truck, but it was almost drowned out by the sound of gunfire behind them. Jondy didn't have to look back to know that Zack had killed everyone behind them. Everyone will just think it was another group of thugs that killed them, she thought blankly. For some reason she was having a difficult time concentrating. She just stared down at her brother, who returned the look and smiled as he reached over to squeeze her hand. "I'll be fine, sis. We're made to be tough, remember?" She so desperately wanted to reply to that with "You think that now, but you can't see the puddle of blood growing beneath you like I can," but she couldn't bring herself to say something like that. Why scare him like that?

It wasn't until Zack hopped into the driver's seat and took off with her still in the back that she snapped out of her daze. She gently but quickly rolled Krit onto his stomach and lifted up his shirt to get it out of the way. As she pressed her hands down with all her strength on top of the bullet wound, she called out to Zack, "We need to get to a hospital, we can't take care of this ourselves."

Zack rolled down his window so that he could talk to her more freely. "I know, but we can't go to the hospital here. How's it going to look when they find out that there's been a shooting over here and they turn around to see that we're bringing in a shooting victim? I know that it's bad, but we have to go to a different hospital."

Krit sucked in a deep breath, which didn't make Jondy's job any easier. "Almost all of the hospitals in the surrounding area are closed down, it would take at least half an hour to get to another one even if you sped the whole way. There's this guy I know that practices medicine out of his house, he'll take us in without asking questions. He lives over by that restaurant we ate at the last time you came here alone. The house is…" What the house was, they never heard. Jondy tapped the side of his face, even smacked him once, but he was out cold.

"Zack, hurry up, I'm not going to be able to stop the bleeding," she practically whispered, struggling to keep the tremble out of her voice. Even though he didn't reply, she knew he had heard her, and she felt the truck accelerate significantly. She hardly noticed when the truck stopped and Zack ran to the nearest house.

"Is there a doctor in this area?" he asked breathlessly.

The old woman who had answered the door pointed to a tiny white house that was in desperate need of a paint job. "Dr. Ashton lives over there. Are you alright, dear?" Zack didn't take the time to answer, he simply ran back to the truck, lifted Krit out onto his shoulders, and carried him to the house as fast as he could go. Jondy trailed along behind, forcing her eyes to focus on the ground in front of her rather than on any of the blood that practically surrounded her. The smell was filling her nostrils until she almost felt like hurling on the spot, but the light from the now open front door before her pulled her attention away from her lurching stomach. The words exchanged between Zack and the doctor sounded so far away, but somehow she heard Zack tell her to go inside and sit down. She numbly followed his instructions, and remained planted on the couch in the doctor's living room without saying a word. Even when Zack came in to sit down next to her and ask her how she was feeling, she refused to say anything. She felt that if she dared to open her mouth, she could do anything from screaming to puking.

They had been in the house for over an hour before Zack came to her with what the doctor had said. "The bullet just barely missed his heart, so the biggest thing we have to worry about is the punctured lung and the blood flooding it. I know it sounds bad, but it's really not. From the way it sounds, and especially with his DNA, Krit would have survived even without a doctor. He passed out more from the shock of knowing he'd been shot and seeing all the blood. When you flipped him over to stop the blood flow, he saw all the blood that had been leaking out underneath him and panicked. Jondy, you can relax, he's going to be fine." Reaching towards her and pulling her cell phone out of her jacket pocket, he quickly dialed a number and handed the phone to her. "Here, it will do you some good to talk to someone who wasn't involved. Don't tell her what happened, just try to have a normal conversation. It might help calm you down."

Jondy had recognized Kiera's number from the sound of his dialing, and it made the weight in her chest lift up slightly. "Hey, it's me," she said softly when Kiera answered and Zack had walked into the back room to talk to the doctor. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"No, you know I'm a night owl. What's wrong? You sound like you've been crying."

Jondy's mind quickly rushed for a response, then her conversation with Shayna rushed back to her. "I wasn't crying, I'm just a little upset. I went to talk to Shayna today, and you were right, she's pregnant. The thing is, um, she's saying it's Zack's baby." Her voice had lowered to a nearly inaudible whisper as she finished the sentence, but she knew that Kiera had heard her.

"Are you serious? How can that be? Maybe it was just her time."

Jondy didn't know what Kiera meant by 'her time', although the way it was phrased seemed to be familiar. "Well, she said that he had just found out about her living with her boyfriend, and they started arguing, and I guess it just sort of happened. She makes it sound like he raped her, but I can't imagine that, I just don't think I could ever believe he is capable of something like that. But why would Shayna lie?"

"I don't know. Maybe it really was just that time for her, and now she's embarrassed and doesn't want to admit that she willingly slept with him. I'm with you, I don't think Zack would rape anybody, but I don't know why Shayna would make it sound like he did. Have you talked to him about it?"

"No, it's been kind of busy lately, so I haven't had the chance." Zack just briefly stepped into her view down the hallway, leaning against the doorframe of Krit's room with his head hanging down. He looked so pale from everything that had gone on that she felt a twinge of sympathy. He had to be taking this harder than she was, he felt he had more responsibility than she did when it came to things like this. "I don't think I'll mention it, either. Shayna must be lying, there's no other explanation. I guess I could believe that they had slept together, but not the way she described it. The only thing that I'm sure she's telling the truth about is that she's a month pregnant. I wonder how she's going to break it to her boyfriend, because she made it sound like they haven't even slept together yet."

"Well, I'm sure she made the bed, so she'll have to lie in it," Kiera said roughly. Jondy couldn't help but be a little bit taken off guard by her sister's harshness.

"I take it you guys don't get along very well?"

"Not really. Something about her has always rubbed me the wrong way."

"Then how come she's the only one you're in contact with? I would think you'd have tried to get Brin's number or something like that."

"I was lucky enough to get my hands on her number during one of Zack's little checkups. Trust me, if I could have gotten someone else's number, I would have done it."

Jondy looked over at Zack again, who was now rubbing his temples wearily. "You know what? I think I'll call you back later, I want to talk to Zack for a bit."

"Ok, see ya."

After she had turned the phone off so there would be no more interruptions, she stood up and walked over to Zack. "Are you ok? You look a little white."

He stood up a little straighter and ran his fingers back through his hair. "I just feel kind of helpless when stuff like this happens and I have to hand someone's care over to somebody else. You know what a control freak I tend to be, I just don't like it when I don't have a say in what happens. I mean, I know he's going to be fine now, but I guess I'm still kind of shaken."

She wasn't sure she'd ever heard him talk so openly before. "You said it yourself, he's going to be fine now, so why don't you go sit down?"

He actually cracked a smile. "Are you giving me some of my own advice?"

"Yes, and you're answering a question with another question. C'mon, don't argue, you're going to sit down even if I have to drag you to the couch."

Zack rolled his eyes, but he allowed her to lead him by the arm to the couch and shove him so that he was sitting, then he watched her go sit in the recliner across the room. "You know, I think I picked the perfect person to work with me," he observed so quietly that she almost didn't hear him. "I know you generally stay quiet, but when you set your mind on something, there's no stopping you. Whether you agree with me or not, you're a natural leader."

Jondy was left speechless, so they just sat in comfortable silence until she became aware that he had fallen asleep. She smiled at the sight of her protective big brother leaning back against the couch with his mouth hanging open slightly as he slept, his hands twitching occasionally from whatever dream he was having. He almost looked like a normal person right now. Doing her best not to make a sound, she crept over to the couch and took him by the shoulders, gently tipping him to the side so that he was lying down. She leaned down and pulled off his boots, lifted his feet up onto the couch, pulled the afghan off the back of the couch, and laid it out over him gently.

"Miss? The young man is awake. Would you like to talk to him?" the doctor asked suddenly, startling her when she realized that he had come out of the back room without her noticing and now he was only about ten feet from her. Wow, I really must be worn out from everything today.

"Yeah, I'd love to talk to him," she replied eagerly. Without even waiting for the doctor to lead the way, she hurried to the back room and went straight to Krit's side. If she ignored the fact that he was paler than usual and had bags under his eyes that betrayed how exhausted he was, he seemed to be healthy enough.

"Well, it's the second time we've seen each other in the past two weeks, and I personally think each visit gets more exciting," he joked feebly, forcing out a smile.

"This one was just a little too exciting though. Let's try not to do a repeat of this one, ok? Anyways, I think this whole thing nearly totaled Zack, he's flopped out on the couch right now, sound asleep. Actually, that's what you should be doing right now too."

"Oh, don't be like him and get all controlling on me now. I really just wanted to see how you were handling it. Zack's used to taking care of this kind of stuff, but you're not. When was the last time you saw someone close to you shot?"

She lowered her eyes to the floor sadly. "I haven't seen anything like this since Lydecker killed Eva."

He reached out and grabbed her hand. "Exactly, that's why I was worried about you. I know it probably didn't occur to Zack to tell you about all of this, but you need to be prepared to deal with more stuff like this. You're so different now, and everyone else is too. Some of us have turned out to be perfectly fine, others are the troublemakers that don't mean to get into trouble like this, but then there's some that turned out really bad. I mean really, really violent. You might end up seeing a lot of things that will make you wish you'd never seen any of us again, but now that you're in it this far, you can't really get back out. You need to be ready for them, do you understand?"

She opened her mouth to say that she understood, but she saw his eyelids starting to droop. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and sat next to him quietly as he dozed off. Even though she knew he couldn't hear her anymore, she whispered, "I know you were referring to Ben, but he's not the only one, is he? There was someone else you were trying to warn me about, right?" She sighed and slipped her hand out of his. Why was Krit the one to tell her this instead of Zack? Wasn't it Zack's responsibility to warn her about what she'd be dealing with? Why didn't he tell her before he gave her the chance to become his SIC? As she walked out to the living room and saw him still sleeping soundly, the answer struck her. He was afraid I wouldn't agree to work with him. Looking down at him now and rethinking everything that had happened today, she realized that it didn't matter. Even if he had told her what the others had become, it wouldn't have made a difference. Despite their problems, they were all still her family, and she was determined to be in it for the long haul, no matter what.

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Author's Note 2: As always, please leave a review!