A Family Affair
Chapter 14: Fallen Angel
After the wedding was over, everyone went back to their daily lives. More transgenics were filing into Terminal City, Logan
was busy with his Eyes Only messages (Asha and Alec went out on the missions as Max came more into term). As the
months went on, Max had finally begun to feel the full symptoms of pregnancy. The morning sickness came and went, her
cravings got weirder (peanut butter and tuna fish sandwiches, broccoli and caviar, she even went so far as to dip chocolate
bars in butter). Max had started putting on weight and her stomach was starting to grow. Maternity clothes shopping would
soon follow, along with the baby's first kick. the way things were going it felt like it was too good to be true. There had been
no Familiar attacks for two years now, not since Rachel and Jesse had been to the past. It was like everything stopped, and
the lives of their transgenic and human parents had become peaceful. But when something as powerful as Cerberus bides its
time, things that are too good to be true, usually are...
8 Months Later...
The doors of the hospital emergency room flew open. Paramedics rushed in quickly, calling for any and all available doctors.
"We need a trauma room!"
"She's losing blood fast!"
The gurney was wheeled into the emergency ward as clothes were cut and the damage assessed.
"What have we got?"
"Gunshots wounds to the chest and abdomen, there's heavy bleeding."
"BP 80, pulse 120!"
Doctors hurried in and out of the room, trying to find equipment.
"We need a surgeon, pad the wounds and get her upstairs!"
Doors were swung open again as the doctors sprinted to the elevator, they almost ran down Dr. Shankar. Looking to see
what all the commotion was about she stopped dead when she saw who the patient was, she quickly followed the emergency
team just to make sure, she prayed she was wrong...
^^^
"I still don't get it. Elves, dwarves? I think you got issues man."
Logan sighed and had to try really hard to prevent himself from slamming his head against the wall. For the past eight months Alec had been bugging Logan about 'The Lord of the Rings' any chance he got.
After prompting, pleading, and pampering, the cyber journalist had finally managed to get his beloved girlfriend Asha to read the trilogy, it made him feel less alone in the book scene.
"So where'd Max and Asha head out to?"
"To find Max another maternity cat suit, she can't zip up the old one anymore," said Alec, "And once more she blamed that on me."
"She did gain a lot of weight though."
"She looks gorgeous. That big round tummy sticking out and the baby kicking up a storm. I swear it kicked me out of bed last night."
"The baby kicked you out?" asked Logan raising an eyebrow.
"I swear, one minute I was in bed the next I was on the floor."
"And you're sure it wasn't Max?"
"Logan come on, oh and I gotta tell you what she did the other day," gushed Alec excitedly, "My daughter did her very first dropkick."
"Okay Alec..."
"She did! It was a drop kick, even Max said so. Though she was whining at the baby that her stomach wasn't a training room. She's kicking more and more lately. It's the greatest thing ever. Just wait till you get Asha knocked up, it'll be great. Well until the cravings start, well and the mood swings. But it'll be worth it. Though you might have some trouble when it comes time to deliver..."
"Oh really? How so?"
"Asha's an X5, she's going to be in a lot of pain. She's going to scream that she hates you and that she wants you to die and then she'll grab your hand and squeeze it until it breaks. Cuz you know what with the 'Human : X-Series Ratio Thingy'."
"I like my hands..." said Logan looking down at his trusted friends, "And further more I NEED my hands."
"Oh well, if you're in recovery I could do it for you."
"Oh yes Alec, I can see it now: 'This is a streaming freedom bulletin, it'll last for a minute, can't trace so don't try, you can't stop me. Hey look! I'm Superman!'"
"No I..."Alec thought for a minute, "Yeah okay I would, that would be it exactly."
As Logan rolled his eyes, the phone started to ring. He reached over to grab the phone off the coffee table.
"Hello?"
"Logan? It' Beverly, I-"
"Beverly? Hi, what's going on?"
"Logan, the paramedics just brought in-"
"Max? Is she in labour?"
At hearing 'Max' and 'labour' in the same sentence Alec made a grab for the phone.
"Dammit Alec, wait."
"Logan that's my wife!"
They struggled until they both had their ear to the one piece.
"What's wrong?"
"Logan! It wasn't Max..."
"Oh well then..."
"Logan it's Asha," said Shankar, "she was shot."
Logan paled and sat unmoving.
"What about Max?" asked Alec, "she was with Asha."
"Alec, I-no one else was brought in...just Asha..."
Logan and Alec both let the phone drop to the floor. Silence filled the apartment.
^^^
2 Hours Earlier...
"I couldn't get the zipper up. It wasn't fair," complained Max, "I only got the last cat suit two months ago and now it doesn't fit."
"Max what are you going to do with them after you have the baby?" asked Asha.
"You can use them when you get pregnant."
"Oh thanks, just what I've always wanted, my sister's maternity leather."
"Besides I hate wearing these damn things," said Max tugging at her long skirt, "These are the only things that'll fit me anymore."
"You could wear a moomoo."
"I'm not that big," said Max resting a hand on her swollen belly, "Do you know what Alec did last night? He put his beer on my stomach like it was a table and it actually balanced, well until the baby kicked it off. I hit him good after but still."
"Has she been kicking a lot?"
"Oh yeah, non-stop. I got a little powerhouse in here."
The two continued walking until they heard shouts and screams coming from up ahead. From where they were standing they could see a kid, about fifteen, running from Sector police. He blurred and leapt over a tin shelter onto the other side of the street.
"Kid's a transgenic," said Max. Dilating her pupils, Max saw the sector cops turn to talk with two guys in suits. They talked into their ear pieces and motioned to go around.
"What are they? Familiars?" asked Asha.
"Probably," said Max, dragging Asha over to an alley, they had to get to the kid first.
Turning a few corners, they caught a glimpse of a coat, blurring quietly they reached the end of the alleyway which was completely empty. A glass bottle clinked in the distance.
"Why doesn't this feel right?" asked Asha, the hair on the back of her neck bristled.
"Something is so wrong..."
From the rooftops, guns cocked and targeted in on them.
Asha and Max whirled around. Men in suits and guard gear were everywhere. They were surrounded by Familars on both
sides and on the roof. Their weapons drawn, and fixed on the two transgenics. There were way too many. Asha was only
one soldier, Max was too close to term to fight anyone properly. The Familars started to part and Max looked over
defiantly, expecting to see White. But instead of the royal pain in her side, a new face came forth. He was older than White,
his dark hair turning grey on the sides. His eyes held no emotion, they were blank, and colder than anything. Whereas White
was extremely temperamental and easily pissed off, he didn't give off half the warning bells as this new guy did.
"By the looks on your faces I'm assuming that you were expecting someone else," he said.
"Where's White?" asked Max, "You think he'd want to be here for this."
"Agent White is...concerned...with other matters at the moment, I'm now the one handling your capture. The name's Prager and you'll find that I run things very differently."
"And I should be scared because?"
"You honestly think you're getting out of this 452?" asked Prager before looking over at Asha. "Take 452, kill the blonde."
Before Max could blink, she had three Familiars grab her and rip her away from Asha. Shots rang out, as X5-210 hit the ground.
"JONDY! You son of a BITCH!" Max tried to fight but what damage could a pregnant transgenic do against at least twenty Familiars in their physical prime? While she was struggling, Max hardly felt the needle prick in her neck before everything went dark...
"Could this job get any easier?" said Prager.
^^^
Logan and Alec burst through the hospital doors, the two of them ran up to the nurse's desk.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for someone," panted Logan, "Asha Barlow, she was brought in maybe half an hour ago."
"Let me check," replied the nurse, "Barlow, Barlow..."
"Logan! Alec!"
Turning to the left they saw Shankar rushing towards them.
"She's in Room 213."
"Who was her doctor and when can I talk to him?" said Logan running down the hall. Alec followed closely behind, he nearly collided with Logan as he stopped abruptly inside Asha's room. The heart monitor was a dull beep as the fallen transgenic lay still and deathly pale.
"Are they family?" came a voice from the door.
"Yes," said Shankar, "Logan this is Dr. Wells, he operated on Asha."
"Is she okay?" asked Logan moving closer to her bed, "what happened?"
"She came in with multiple gunshot wounds, torso and abdomen, we did all we could. Your wife lost a lot of blood, to tell you the truth we were surprised at the way she hung on. She's in a coma, she should come out of it, but just so you know...the longer she's in it, the less likely it'll be that she wakes up."
Logan ran a hand over his face, not wanting to believe any of this.
"Was uh, was anyone else with her? When she came in?" asked Alec slowly.
"No, she was alone."
After a few more questions, Wells and Shankar left Logan and Alec alone. As Logan sat down on the edge of Asha's bed,
Alec moved over to the window and looked out at the setting sun, "Max..."
~*~*~*~
A/N: Yes, I'm bad. I gave you happy chapters and now I throw this in. Well there had to be a catch to it all right? And about Max and Asha walking into a trap, let's just say it's plausible okay? I needed to get them caught and that was the best way I could think of. And Wells just assumed Logan and Asha were married, which they're not. And yes, for those who noticed, I used the same coma thingy that Willow was in, in Becoming Pt. 2: 'She can wake up at any time, but, um... the longer it lasts, the... less likely it is.'
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